


cosmic courage

by thatcyborg



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Languages, Alien Mythology/Religion, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Gender-Neutral Pronouns For Reader, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith's Father's Name is Trevor, Mentions of Child Experiementation, Mind Control, Minor Original Character(s), Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Second Person, Reader is the Black Lion, Reader-Insert, Sentient Voltron Lions, Tags Are Hard, Voltron Lions Have Names, Voltron Lions as Humans, mentions of human experimentation, rated mature just in case
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:40:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24244411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatcyborg/pseuds/thatcyborg
Summary: Waking up alone in a dark lab is the first thing you remember. Then you met Alfor of Altea, who told you what you were, a giant, black ship in the shape of a lion. Soon enough, four other lions joined you.Throughout the decaphoebs, the five of you gain paladins, gain the name Voltron, and gain a life outside of the lab.(and then you're locked in another lab for ten thousand decaphoebs, alone once more.)
Relationships: Allura (Voltron) & Reader, Black Lion/Red Lion (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron) & Reader, Keith (Voltron) & Reader, Lance (Voltron) & Reader, Past Voltron Paladins & Reader, Pidge | Katie Holt & Reader, Reader/Red Lion (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron) & Reader, Voltron Lions & Reader, Zarkon (Voltron) & Reader
Comments: 15
Kudos: 50





	1. zero-one

**Author's Note:**

> i tried to write this two years ago, gave up and abandoned it (probably), tried to write it again then deleted it, and now i'm back. because quarantine is a jerk and i'm bored and all my mind is filled with this freaking story again. just to say, this starts off with the original paladins and explores things with them before everything just kinda goes downhill because we gotta meet the new paladins somehow.
> 
> just for clarification, the lions do get names (minus you...kinda) in the second/third chapter (this is the prologue) and won't be called Yellow, Blue, Red, and Green the whole time. Their names are listed in the character spot, followed by what lion they are. i will explain the reasoning behind their names when they get named.
> 
> you will never be called Y/n because i think it looks dumb, instead, it will always be "so," (soinso) said your name, "blah,blah,blah" sorta deal. even though it kinda makes the dialogue weird a little, i think it looks better than inserting Y/n into it. i just don't like the slash.
> 
> not all chapters will be this short. as the morse code (the line breaks, i couldn't figure out what to do for it so, morse code) says, this is the season one trailer basically. i'm kinda doing an episodic thing for the chapters? idk, but having this being called the season one chapter kinda makes sense since it's the prologue and is really short compared to the first chapter (which, at the time of writing this is, hopefully almost done with almost 5k words).
> 
> long a/n but hopefully you have a fun time reading this even if it's super short. i'm hoping to have the first chapter out by the 19th.

With the city below being illuminated by the deep purple lights favored by the planet's people, and the sky being painted with streaks of bright light, Zarkon couldn’t help but think that his planet was beautiful. The meteor shower made it look all the more stunning. It only made Zarkon smile at what he had been able to accomplish since he had started to rule over Daibazaal. So much had changed in the several decaphoebs, and not just Daibazaal’s looks. The Galra had finally begun to be trusted and not feared and hated like they had been before. Zarkon had even managed to create a truce of sorts with several planets, one being Altea—a planet known for its peaceful ways and how it took a lot to earn its trust. 

King Alfor of Altea had not been what Zarkon had been expecting, that’s for sure. Instead of someone stuck up and obsessed with the ways of old, Alfor seemed to embrace change. Seeing as how he dabbled in science, Zarkon could understand why. 

Zarkon laughed to himself as he watched over Daibazaal through a window from his royal hall (a name he, himself, would have never chosen but since it had been named before his time, there was no point in changing it), remembering all of the times he had run into King Alfor and his friends. Zarkon had joined them on a few of the missions the four of them went on, although he had no clue if he was actually included in the group permanently or not. However, the longer the truce lasted, the more Alfor seemed to call on Zarkon for these missions. 

That is why, when the one of the brightest lights Zarkon had ever seen landed not far from where the city below laid, Zarkon immediately called Alfor. Besides, Alfor would probably know more than Zarkon about why the crashed comet was glowing blue and hadn’t let up in vargas. 

... .---- - .-. .- .. .-.. . .-.

Cautiously, Alfor followed Zarkon. Not because Alfor didn’t trust Zarkon, no, but the fact that the ground was uneven below his feet was a better reason to be cautious. Especially as a massive hole stood in front of the two of them, with a giant chunk of comet standing tall and giving off a strange blue light. Alfor had never seen anything like it, that’s for certain. 

“This is incredible,” he breathed out, half-tempted to walk right up to the comet to feel the rock under his hands. Instead, he turned back to Zarkon. “If possible, I would like to take it back to Altea. We have the tools there to be able to test what makes this comet so special compared to others we’ve come across.” 

Zarkon seemed to study Alfor, albeit softly and not at all menacing. “I don’t see why not. I called you here for that exact reason.” 

Alfor couldn’t help but smile back at the glowing comet, still smoking from when it had crashed through the atmosphere.

There seemed to be little room left in Alfor’s lab now that the comet had been brought in. However, Alfor hardly cared. He wanted to figure out what made the comet glow, and seeing as it hadn’t in the vargas it had taken to get it back to Altea, he had a feeling it was because of something inside of the comet. 

The best way to check would be to cut it in half. Besides, Alfor had a project in mind and a glowing comet may be the best choice of material for it. 

Groaning, Alfor stared up at the giant lion head, its eyes dull and head bent down towards him. The mechanical lion that he had made out of half of the comet would not start, no matter what Alfor did. 

“One more test,” Alfor mumbled to himself, yawning, “then I’ll head off to bed.”

Flipping a switch, Alfor could hear something happen. However, nothing that affected the black lion in front of him. He waited a few moments more, just in case it was a delayed start, but when it seemed like nothing would happen, he grumbled to himself and left the lab. Leaving the giant black lion alone in the lab to try to start up another day. 

... .---- - .-. .- .. .-.. . .-.

  
  


In the darkness of a closed lab on the planet of Altea, golden eyes awakened.


	2. one-one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, look, it's not the middle of the night. i also got this out the day i said i would, woo!
> 
> just a note, i have not watched voltron since the last season came out, or not in its entirety and just the first episode or something, so things are bound to be wrong. i wasn't really going to follow the seasons past one, maybe two, anyway soooo.
> 
> also, the lions get named next chapter, so for now they're all just Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green. i've also changed it so that their pronouns are what the wiki says they would use (so Green has she/her, Red has he/him) instead of gender neutral ones because i felt that with all of the they/thems, there would be a whole of confusions. 
> 
> hope you guys enjoy!

It’s dark, you think, except from the yellow glow that comes from your eyes as you look down from whatever height you were at. The light shines over whatever you look at, making it amazingly handy as you learn what kind of room you’re in. 

There’s a bridge, right above (yet, slightly in front of) your nose; a little pedestal resting close to railing that emits a soft white glow. Your eyes follow whatever way the bridge moves, watching it morph into stairs as it falls down towards a machine glowing in a multitude of colours. Tilting your head slowly, you can’t help but be curious about what all the blinking lights do, and why they’re emitting such a light. So, you do the most obvious thing and stand up.

A tail,  _ your  _ tail, bumps into the wall behind you, sending a chill up your spine. Spinning to face the wall, you can’t help but be faced with the fact that your body is too big to actually move around in the small space you woke up in. If your face could frown, you would be. If you could grumble, you would be. Not being able to move freely upsets you to no end. You want to be able to move around and investigate things to no end. You want to learn how things work, and why the colours on the machine blink. 

You can’t help but be curious about everything, for you know nothing.

You want to be down on the floor, exploring the space that you have. You want to be whatever size you need to be to explore. You don’t want to be stuck as something big with a long tail that stops you from moving around like you’d want to. You don’t want to be something that’s stuck on four legs and is absolutely giant in comparison to whatever uses the machines down below. 

Your mind supplies an image of what you don’t really understand, but you know that it would be small enough to navigate the room too small for you to as you are now. So, with a mechanical creak, you sit back down and let the light being emitted from your eyes die out. 

You don’t know what you would call the feeling you were currently feeling, but it wasn’t one you would consider uncomfortable or painful (not that you know what either of those really feel like, those are just the words that seem to fit...you also don’t know how you know that). It felt almost nice. You wouldn’t know how to describe it. It was such a foriegn experience, and you had nothing to compare it to. 

What you did know, however, was that, whatever it was, had made you shrunk. 

No longer were you nose height with the bridge, but instead, could look up and see the bridge several (what’s a good type of measurement?) feet above you. You couldn’t even reach up with your hand—you had a hand, it was no longer a paw; flexing your fingers, you couldn’t help but be amazed, because you actually had fingers—and touch it. Taking a cautious step towards one of the blinking machines, you couldn’t help but smile (something you could actually do now) as nothing stood in your way. 

Your footsteps echoed through the quiet room that looked much larger now that you were smaller. Taking in everything at once, you spun around as you walked so you could see every nook and cranny as you made your way over to one of the blinking machines. Through the dark, you could see that the room looked barren and clean. You didn’t like that it looked so empty. Especially since this was the place that was, obviously, supposed to be your home. It was where you had woken up anyway.

(What was a home?)

Finally making your way to one of the blinking machines, you let the colourful lights guide your eyes as they scanned over the machine. You didn’t understand anything that was on it. There were screens, and those screens had symbols, but it all looked like a bunch of scribbles to you. You stared at the screens with a confused expression for a moment-

And then the lights turned on.

Spinning around, you felt something pound in your chest and felt your breath start to pick up. You couldn't help but feel as if the lights turning on was a bad thing, especially since you hadn't done it yourself. The whole time you had been in this room, it had been dark, so what did the lights turning on mean exactly? 

There was a hiss, or something that sounded what you would classify as a hiss, and the sound of footsteps (compared to what you heard while you were walking, you assumed they were footsteps) coming closer to your room. Obviously, someone was coming into your room. There was a sense of panic (was that the right word?) that surged through you as you came to the conclusion that, since this was your room, they were coming to hurt you. 

You weren't just about to stand around them and let them do that.

Although, since the room was too small in whatever your big form was, you couldn't just turn big and attack them that way. You were going to have to find something to attack them back with. A weapon of some sort. Although, with the room around you being bare, except for the machines, there wasn't anything you could really pick up and use as a weapon. You were weaponless and someone was coming to attack you.

You needed a weapon. 

So, it would seem that (much like how you shrunk) you acquired a weapon. A short, pointy thing that was narrow where your hands sat and widened as it grew into the point, with little parts sticking out above your hands. Well, now that you had a weapon, you had a proper means of defending yourself. 

Whoever had turned on the lights, and made the hiss, finally came into your view. A person, walking on two legs with two hands just like you, taller than you with white hair and hair on their face (you didn't have any, what did that mean?) seemed to be preoccupied with something in their hands. A board about the size of their face, and they didn't look up even as they walked towards where you had just been moments before. They didn't even notice you, brandishing your weapon, as they walked up the bridge. It seemed as if you were almost invisible.

That was, until you heard the thing the person was carrying fall to the ground where you had been in your big form and something came out of their mouth that you didn't quite understand. They came barreling down the stairs, nearly tripping down them a few times. With a look of something you couldn't quite put a word to, they jumped the railing near the end of the stairs and stood in surprise at the empty spot in front of them. 

With a whole lot of caution, you took several steps towards them, each step echoing through the room. Still holding your weapon in front of you, with absolutely no idea on how to use it, you decided to engage the person yourself. You still had no idea if they were here to harm you or not, but you couldn't get the idea out of your head just yet. Not until you knew for sure. 

Upon hearing your footsteps, the person turned around on their heel. With wide eyes, that slowly seemed to turn angry, they started to speak. " _ Who are you? How did you get in here? Do you have something to do with the fact that the lion is missing? _ " Yet, you couldn't understand a word they were saying.

You tilted your head slightly, but did not lower your weapon. Instead, you used it to gesture to the empty spot where you had just been and then pointed to yourself with your free hand. You opened your mouth, to attempt to make any sounds like the person in front of you had, but the only thing that came out sounded like you were being strangled or imitating some kind of animal. 

The anger from the person's eyes fell, and instead they looked at you with confusion. Glancing over their shoulder towards the empty spot, they looked back and forth between you and the spot. "Are you saying that...you are the lion?" They shook their head. " _ That's preposterous. The lion is a ship, something that is not capable of shapeshifting into a species of alien. You stole it, didn't you? _ "

Whatever they had said, it had sounded like a lot. You seemed to understand one thing from it though, with the way they were looking at you, it didn't seem like they believed you. You attempted to think of some way that would make them believe you, and the only thing that came to your mind was to go back into your big form. Yet, you couldn't do that without ruining the bridge above your head. Since this was, probably, your room, you didn't feel like destroying it. However, there was enough room behind the bridge to change.

The only problem was that you didn't know exactly how to change. 

It probably wasn't any different from changing from your big form to your smaller form, right? It can't be too hard. You had managed to do it the other way around pretty easily. You had even made yourself a weapon out of nowhere. So, surely, going back into your big form would be easy. 

Taking several steps back, although keeping your weapon trained on the person in front of you, you closed your eyes much like you had when you were trying to become small. You wished yourself big, like you had when you had wanted to be small. 

The feeling spread over your body once more, and you felt the weapon you had disappear from your hand as your body morphed into your big form. (You really needed to find better names for them, they sounded really dumb.) 

Soon, you were staring down at the person with your glowing eyes (that didn't seem to be glowing now).

Much like you were staring down, the person (who seemed oh so short now that you were absolutely giant) stared up at you with wide eyes. Their jaw opened, and it almost looked like they were silently screaming. Especially by the way they were moving their arms, and looking back and forth towards the place you had first woken up and the place you sat now. Unlike the place you had woken up at, you had more room to move around where you stood now (without your tail brushing up against a wall). So, deciding to get closer to the person but not having to shrink again, you maneuvered yourself so that your front legs were out in front of you, with your head resting on them. Your back legs folded down on each other, allowing you to lie down on the ground without much trouble.

Running a hand through their white hair, the person stared up at you in surprise. “ _ You are the lion. _ ” 

You opened your mouth, but, much like it had when you had been short, no noise came out that could be interpreted as words. Instead, a loud clunk came as a ramp fell out. 

What?

The person seemed to take that as incentive to climb  _ inside  _ your mouth. You couldn’t see them inside of you (that sounds so strange) but you could hear them as they clambered around. Just because you couldn’t see what they were doing, however, did not mean that you liked them being there. So, deciding the best course of action was to shrink, you did so, with them inside you. You had never done so with your eyes opened, so it was strange seeing the world around you fall from the change of height. 

When the feeling was gone and you were properly shrunk, you turned to the person who now sat behind you with a strange smile on their face.

“ _ Not only did I make a ship, I made sentient life, _ ” They laughed a little, turning to you. “ _ Can you understand me? _ ”

You frowned. 

The person mirrored your frown. “ _ I’ll take that as a no. _ ” They sighed. “ _ This will make things all the more difficult. Perhaps before we start with any tests to see what you can do, I should teach you Altean. Although, that may take a while. _ ” They took a step towards you, leading to you backing up a step. “ _ There’s no need to be afraid, I won’t hurt you. My name, _ ” They gestured to themselves with their hands, “ _ is Alfor _ .”

You narrowed your eyes at them for a moment before cautiously taking a step towards them, pointing towards them with your finger. “I-” Your mouth made a noise, and you couldn’t help but be happy about that even if it sounded nothing like what they had said. “Isalfor?” It sounded like what they had said, but you weren’t entirely sure because they had also said something else. You assumed that this is what they called themselves.

Isalfor blinked for a moment before giving you a smile. “ _ Close. _ ” They pointed to themselves again. “ _ Alfor.”  _ They shook their head. “ _ Not  _ Isalfor.” Oh.

“Aph-Alfor?” You tried again. 

They clapped, which you took for a good thing, before pointing to you. 

You pointed to your chest. “Alfor?”

They shook their head with a laugh. “ _ No. You have your own name. _ ”

“Isalfor?”

_ “Do you...not have a name to call yourself? _ ” When you didn’t answer, they pointed to you. “ _ Black Lion _ .”

“Ba...Back Ion?”

“ _ Black Lion, _ ” They repeated.

“Bla,” They nodded their head, so you continued, “Black Lion?” 

They clapped again. “ _ Good! That’s, _ ” They pointed to you, “ _ your name.” _ They pointed to themselves. “ _ My name is Alfor. _ ” They were silent for a moment before pointing back to you.

You took that as them wanting you to repeat what they had just said, but perhaps with your own call instead. “Mi,” You frowned, that was wrong, it sounded wrong. “My nom-na-name is Black Lion.”

Alfor clapped again. “ _ Great! _ ” He looked around the room for a moment. “ _ What else can I use to teach you Altean? _ ”

It had been a while, since Alfor had started to teach you Altean. From what Alfor called them, it had been a full movement since the two of you had met. And, surprising to Alfor, you were picking up Altean pretty quickly. You still didn't understand some of the time management that Alfor tried to teach you (you still didn't understand what was the difference between vargas and movements, or phoebs and decaphoebs), but you could ask Alfor questions and answer the ones he had for you pretty well. Questions the two of you usually asked each other as Alfor would work on a project. A project that reminded you of the big form you had.

"What is called?" You gestured to the giant yellow big thing Alfor continued to work on. 

Alfor turned to you with a wrench in his hand with slight surprise. "You don't know what this is?" You only shook your head. "Well, your name is the Black Lion, and you look a lot like this guy," he gestured to the yellow creature with the wrench, "but black. So, what would that make this?"

You frowned and narrowed your eyes for a moment, thinking of how to string the words together. "The Yellow Lion?"

Alfor gave you a smile, one that made his eyes crinkle close. "That's right!"

"I'm a lion when big?" 

"That's right." Alfor went back to working on Yellow Lion. 

You tilted your head slightly as you watched Alfor work on Yellow Lion. "How long it take?" You didn't really have a good sense of time, only knowing when it had been a varga or movement (what it actually was) when Alfor returned from disappearing.

"Well," Alfor dragged out without turning back to you, "you took roughly half a decaphoeb to make. I'm guessing about the same as that."

You frowned at the ground in confusion. "How long that?"

Alfor gave a hum. "One hundred and eighty movements, roughly."

"Ra-roughly?" You repeated.

"Almost."

"Oh." You took a step towards Yellow Lion and Alfor. "Be like me when finished?" 

"I don't actually know. I hope so."

"Oh." You were silent for a moment. "How many disappears will you do before it finished?" You could count those well enough. You often got bored while he was gone so your best means of keeping yourself not bored was remembering how many times he had left.

Alfor gave a sigh. "One hundred and eighty, roughly."

"One hundred and eighty, roughly?" 

"Yes. Now, please let me continue working on it or else it will take longer."

You stayed quiet after that, not wanting to make Yellow Lion take any longer than they needed to. Especially if he was going to end up being like you. Then you wouldn't be so lonely while Alfor was gone.

By the time Yellow Lion was finished, you were basically fluent in Altean, and Alfor had said that himself so it had to be true. You no longer sounded like a baby, according to Alfor, so that had to be a good thing. However, you couldn't contain your excitement when Alfor announced that Yellow Lion would be able to wake up today, and so your sentences were choppy and unfinished. Something Alfor scolded you for.

You held your fists together for luck, keeping them close to your chest as you waited for Yellow (much easier to say then just Yellow Lion all the time) to wake up. You tried to keep your eyes opened for as long as you could, not wanting to blink and miss it. You were just so excited to see if Yellow would be like you, that he would be able to switch between a lion form and a shorter form (Alfor had pointed out that you looked almost Altean, but not really, he said it was because of the lack of marks and rounded ears). If they could, then you wouldn't be so lonely when Alfor left (which you, upon learning proper time management, learned was once every movement). Maybe you wouldn't get so bored while he was gone with Yellow around. 

You really just couldn't wait.

However, the longer you waited, the more it seemed like Yellow wasn't going to wake up like you did. 

Frowning in sadness, you turned to Alfor. "Why isn’t he waking up?"

Alfor didn't look sad, only slightly confused if anything. "I haven't the faintest clue, but I wasn't around when you woke up so it could be something I don't know about. Perhaps I missed something." Alfor took a step towards Yellow.

Following his lead, you also took a step towards Yellow. Sliding a hand against his side, you glanced up at his lowered head. You wanted him to wake up, so that the two of you could talk. You would probably have to help Alfor teach Yellow Altean like he did for you, but you didn't really care about that. It just meant that you would get closer because of it. You had learned more about Alfor from him teaching you Altean (like how he's the King of Altea, which seems like a pretty big title that he explained basically ran the planet), so you'd probably learn more about Yellow from teaching him Altean, and vice versa. 

"Please," You whispered to the quiet lion that didn't make any signs of life, "please wake up." 

Alfor hadn't seemed to hear you, since he didn't make a noise or ask you what you were saying, but Yellow seemed to have. Upon removing your hand, Yellow's head, ever so slowly, moved from its lack position. He seemed to be surveying the place like you had when you first woke up, before locking eyes with you on the ground. 

A giant smile covered your face, and you waited for Yellow to realize that he could shrink down to your size. When he did, you instantly ran closer to him, wanting to wrap him in a hug. Until you realized that he looked absolutely terrified. Remembering what you were like when you first met Alfor, you stayed a safe distance away while Alfor himself stood by and watched.

You pointed to your chest. "Black Lion." Then, you pointed to Yellow. "Yellow Lion."

Yellow titled his head with a frown, gesturing to himself with his hand, he repeated what you had just said. "Yal-Yellow Ion-" He shook his head. "Yellow Lion?"

You clapped your hands like Alfor had when you had gotten things right. "That's you!"

Teaching Yellow how to speak Altean turned out to be a thing that only you did, for Alfor was too busy working on another lion to help. So, while Alfor worked on the Blue Lion, you taught Yellow how to speak Altean and time management much like Alfor had done for you. However, it went a whole lot quicker than your own learning had. Perhaps it had because you weren't being distracted by building a lion. 

Building Blue still took the same amount of time that building Yellow had. Much like Yellow, he woke up when you asked her to. Much like Yellow, he didn't take as long as you did for learning Altean, especially since both Yellow and you were teaching her. Much like Yellow, Alfor didn't help because he was building another lion; this one was green. Everything seemed to go roughly the same for Green as it did Blue. Still took the same amount of time to make, still had to be asked awake by you, and took even less time to teach Altean because there were three of you doing it now.

Alfor didn't help at all. It almost seemed like he was barely there except for the fact that every time a new lion was made, he would begin working on another one. He wasn't even trying to get to know the four of you, not like he had when you were the only one made. Now that you thought about it, he wasn't trying to get to know you personally, but instead what you were made of, what made you a lion and not some alien species that looked almost Altean. 

You supposed that he was too busy working on the fifth lion, a red one a little smaller than Green due to the lack of materials Alfor had left from the comet, to actually interact with the four of you. Especially seeing as Alfor had decided to bring in some strange liquid that glowed yellow. 

"What's that?" Green questioned as Alfor brought in the liquid, holding it carefully with both of his hands.

Alfor continued to walk towards Red, but still answered Green's question, even if it wasn't a direct answer. "I decided to do something different with this lion. The four of you were all built the same, using the same materials. I've decided to change it up a bit with the Red Lion, and I think this will do just the job."

You didn't know if you liked the idea of changing it up. The four of you had turned out fine, so why did Alfor feel the need to change the way that he made Red? It just didn't make any sense. At least, not to you. 

Red took longer than Yellow; longer than Blue; and longer than Green. Instead of half a decaphoeb like they had, Red took almost a full one. For being, roughly, the smallest lion of the five of you, it seemed strange. Alfor almost seemed like he didn't want to stop making slight additions to the way he made Red. You had seen him a couple of times, adding things that hadn't been added to Yellow, Blue, or Green. It made you wonder what exactly Alfor was making Red for. The other four of you were supposed to be ships of sort (which you didn't quite understand, seeing as the four of you had never left the lab in, at least, three decaphoebs), but with all the extra things Red was getting, he might turn out different. 

Standing in front of the smaller lion, you couldn't help but frown at the way his head was bowed and his eyes didn't glow just yet. The dull yellow just seemed so sad. You weren't really excited for Red to wake up, not because you didn't want another friend, but because you were afraid that it wouldn't work. There was just this sense of dread that Red wouldn't wake up because of how different Alfor made them. Yet, you also hoped that he did wake up because then you could figure out what was so different between the five of you. So far, every lion had seemed to be the same. And, without any ways to expand your personalities except for little things, there wasn't really anything all that different about the four of you.

So, with your hand resting on Red's front paw, you closed your eyes. "Wake up, please?" 

The room shook, the power of Red's roar echoing through the room as he woke. However, he didn't seem calm or scared like the other three had been when he woke up. Or, if Red was, he had a completely different way of showing it. Instead of being afraid of confrontation like the other three, Red tried to run, only to be stopped by the walls behind them. he seemed to quickly get the hang of shrinking (you couldn't help but notice the faint marks under his eyes, or the way that his ears made a slight point, or the wild red colour of his hair) and figured out how to run as soon as he could. 

Red couldn't really get far, due to the fact that the door was locked (Alfor always locked it when he came in), and there was only so far to go in such a small room. You caught them on the bridge (you hoped it didn't feel like he were being cornered, with Yellow and Green on the other side, and Blue and you facing them from the front) soon enough.

Pointing to yourself, you did the same spiel you did for the other three. "Black Lion." You then pointed to Red. "Red Lion."

Instead of pointing to themselves, like the other three had done, Red scowled, and almost growled. "I don't need to be treated like a baby."

Shock ran through you, and it probably did with the other three too. Not once had any of you been able to speak perfect Altean right off the bat. Sure, Green had learned it in almost two movements, but that was with Yellow, Blue, and you all teaching them. For Red to know Altean right off the bat was very different.

You shook your head to free you from your shock. “Sorry. I was just expecting you to be like the others. They didn’t really understand Altean when they first woke up.” You let out a weak laugh, trying to act like you normally would. “Even I didn’t.”

Red seemed to loosen up, sliding his feet so he were standing up straight inside of a guarded pose. “Why’d you run after me?” 

Blue made a noise behind Red, a sort of ‘I don’t know’ sound. “It was fun though.”

“Blue!” You scolded with a slight glare.

“Fun?” Red spun around. “I was terrified! For all I knew you guys were looking to attack me!”

“Attack you?” Green asked, tilting her head as she didn’t even hesitate as she walked forward. “Why would we do that?”

Red backed themselves up against the banister, his back facing the larger part of the room. “How should I know?” he snapped, holding onto the banister with pale knuckles. “I wake up and there’s five people staring at me strangely. How would you react?” 

“Well I know I was afraid at first, but after a bit I calmed down,” Yellow pointed out. “But the only ones there were Alfor and Black for me.”

“Did you,” Red started, sounding softer than he did before, “did you all wake up like I did?”

Everyone mumbled their responses. Except for you.

“I woke up alone,” You explained. “And was absolutely terrified when I first saw Alfor, I pulled a weapon on him and couldn’t understand a word he said. It’s pretty reasonable that you’d try to run if you saw all five of us.” 

“Speaking of Alfor,” Blue spoke up, walking closer to Red and bending down slightly to stare them in the eyes, “is it just me or does Red kinda look like him? You know, with the,” Blue’s hand hovered above Red’s wild hair, “red hair instead of white.”

Red smacked Blue’s hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

“We all have hair roughly the same colour as we are when we’re lions, it makes sense that Red would have red hair,” Green pointed out, pushing themselves close enough to Red’s face that they were almost touching, Green squinted a little. “Although, the marks under his eyes do look a little similar to Alfor’s. Except for more of a pink than a blue.”

Pushing Green away with one hand, Red used the other to fling himself over the bridge’s railing. Rushing over to the edge of the bridge, you stretched your hand out in hopes that you would catch Red before he fell too far. Your eyes widened, however, when Red crashed onto the ground, each of his paws making a noise as his lion form hit the ground fast. You certainly weren’t expecting them to do that. 

To be honest, it almost looked fun. 

Red stared back at you with golden eyes, almost as if inviting you to come join them. At the same time, though, it was difficult to judge emotions while one was in their lion form. 

The larger part of the room, as you had learned, did hold three lions at a time. You really hoped that Red didn’t mind that you were joining them.

Throwing your legs over the railing, you allowed yourself to fall for a second before closing your eyes. When your paws reached the ground, the floor shook underneath you a little. 

The ground shook under you as you were knocked onto your back as well. 

With your eyes open, you could see that Red had been the culprit. Pushing yourself back up, you nudged him with your head, not enough to fully knock him down but enough to push him away a little. If you were in the smaller form, you would have laughed at the antics, but since you were currently a lion, the most you could do was project that. 

And you were right, it was fun.

By the time that the two of you were done, you were panting, having swapped to your smaller forms for more room and to allow the others to join if they wanted to (none of them did, and instead just stared down from the bridge). Red was smiling, wide as laughter left his mouth. You couldn’t help but match him. You supposed that Red just needed to let off steam, by playfully attacking someone, to really feel like talking to anyone. It probably hadn’t helped that the four of you had chased him around the room. 

You should do that more often.

Alfor clapped his hands together, striding up to Red and you. “Since you seemed to have calmed the Red Lion down,” he spoke to you, despite Red being right beside you, “I believe it is time for me to run some tests. Just to make sure the Red Lion is operating at one hundred percent.”

“Tests?” Both Red and you questioned at the same time.

“Well, yes.” Alfor said it as if it was the most obvious thing. “The Red Lion has been made differently than any of the others, so I will be doing tests to make sure that everything is going right.”

You glanced over at Red, who seemed to look uneasy about the tests. Yet, he didn’t object to them.

You stood off to the side, with the other three lions, while Red’s tests commenced. And that became your quintantly routine. Sometimes, while Alfor wasn’t there, the five of you would run around chasing each other, pretending that someone was a monster of sorts. Other times, you just talked. 

Your routine was thrown out the window when the lights in the lab came on in the middle of the night cycle.


	3. two-one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh so, holy smokes??? i did not mean for this chapter to get so long???? i was expecting 5-ish thousand like the last one but this is a whopping 7.8k chapter. so, uh, wow. that's nearly beating the longest chapter (which, surprisingly, was for an older version of this) which is 10k. i have a feeling that, if the chapters continue to get longer, i'll beat that by chapter 3 at least. i'm not going to make it my goal or anything, but if it does, it does. (if i do 5k words a chapter, i'll have 100k by the time i reach the end of what i have written for the drafts O_O)
> 
> you do call yourself Black (as in Black Lion) a few times in this chapter, seeing as you don't have a name yet, but you get one at the end.
> 
> like i said in the last chapter, i won't be using Y/n because I think it ruins the flow. instead, it will look like "hey-" soinso said you name "-what do think of this?" and the likes.
> 
> also, fights scenes are hard when the perspective is a giant mechanical lion that doesn't know what they're technically doing.
> 
> fight scenes are just hard in general.
> 
> also, languages. languages are going to very prominent in this. i know no languages other than English. A bunch of alien languages (such as Altean, Galran, plus whatever the other first paladins use) will be used. Spanish and Japanese will be used as well, but seeing as I don't know any words in those languages, and I don't trust Google Translate, they were not technically be in the story. instead, I will be using italics to indicate when someone is using a language you don't know, or using a different language than the one that is being used by the majority of those in the conversation.
> 
> also, i don't know what is a good way to write a character not very fluent in a language, so, seeing as I decided Zarkon is not fluent in Altean, I'm sorry if the way Zarkon speaks is offensive to anyone. if anyone would like to help me write a more believable non-fluent speaking person, please don't hesitate to put suggestions (and or the way they may actually say something) in the comments. i have searched up and seen examples (???) but i'm not sure if they stuck well enough or not.

The five of you, having no place to sleep while in lions, usually slept in a group pile on the ground while in your shrunken forms. So, when all the lights turned off and blinded all of you, each of you gave a groan of irritation. No one was happy to be woken up from their sleep, especially Red who almost looked as if he wanted to kill someone. Since Alfor usually came vargas after the five of you woke up, it was strange for the light to turn on before any of you were awake (Yellow sometimes slept until Alfor came, mostly due to the fact he could never get comfortable on the ground). 

Blinking away the weariness from your eyes, you glared towards the hissing door of the elevator (you had watched Alfor ascend and descend from it enough times to know it wasn't a normal hallway). Alfor stood front and center, white armor definitely in place in the white lab. However, the red armor of the large person behind him wasn't. Nor was the colourful armor of the other three behind him. 

These were new people.

Alfor never brought new people.

Pushing yourself up, you heard multiple yawns from the other lions still on the floor. Except for Red, who followed your lead as you stood. 

You couldn't help but feel cautious around the new people, since Alfor had never brought anyone into the lab before, and you didn't see why he would now. It felt as if it was back when you had first met Alfor. You were terrified, that Alfor would hurt you, and so you summoned a weapon. That's exactly what you did now as well.

Alfor had once told you that your weapon was a simple sword, one that would work well with anyone. Yet, he had said, that it didn't look like one that originated from Altea, or any planet he had been to for that matter. You didn't care, it was a weapon and you could use it. Red's weapon (as every lion could summon their own weapon, much like you could) was what Alfor called an Altean Dagger, a rounded blade with a triangle tipped end with short reach; perfect for sneak attacks as the four of you found out (Red's never used it to harm, only to startle). 

Each of the people behind Alfor widened their eyes at the sight of the five of, three of which were still sitting on the floor with confusion flashing across their faces (it matched those in front of them). You glared at them, and sometimes shot a look towards Alfor, as they slowly made their way towards the five of you. Red was just full on shooting death glares at Alfor. Alfor had bags under his eyes, something that you had noted meant he was tired.

"Zarkon, Blaytz, Gyrgan, Trigel," Alfor announced, placing a hand on your shoulder and throwing you off balance, "meet the Lions."

"Alfor," the beige one, the shortest one of the bunch, started with a soft voice, "these are children. You said you had something that would help stop whatever was attacking Daibazaal."

"I don't see how," the tall one in red armor started, but paused on a word. You could tell that his Altean wasn't one hundred percent perfect, but he was getting there, "mere children could help protect my planet from that beast."

"Children?" Green questioned from behind you, sliding herself up off of the ground. She glanced around at the five of you. "What are children?"

"Us, apparently," Blue supplied.

"Blue," You hissed over your shoulder, "now is not the time."

"Lions," Alfor continued with his introductions, "meet Zarkon," he gestured to the tall one in red armor, "Trigel," the short beige one, "Blaytz," the blue one with gills on his neck, "and Gyrgan." The last one, who was yellow and the second tallest of the bunch.

"Why have you brought them?" You asked, letting your sword fall to your side but not letting it disappear to wherever it went when you didn't need it. "You've never brought anyone here before."

"Hold on, wait," Zarkon glared at Blaytz for a moment, "not for long," he added, "what do you mean Alfor's never brought anyone down here before? Surely, the," he seemed to stop and count the five of you for a moment, if his hand gestures were anything to go by, "five of you haven't been down here alone?"

"All we've ever known is this room and Alfor," You explained, glancing over at the Altean in question. "So, Alfor, what makes you bring these people down here?" You sounded angry and serious, probably, but you really wanted to know and did not want to be attacked. Especially after being woken up half way through the sleep cycle.

"Alfor said that he had something that could help us defeat a beast attacking my planet," Zarkon answered instead, taking a step closer. "Ships. But all I see are the five children in front of me." 

"Stop calling us children," Red snapped. "I don't even know what those are."

"A beast?" You inquired, mirroring what Zarkon did and taking a step towards him. 

"Yes. And right now, my planet is dangerous because of it."

"In danger," Alfor corrected. "His planet is in danger."

"Right." You heard Zarkon mutter.

"And what can we do about it?" Because, obviously, the five of you were the ships Alfor was talking about. He had called the five of you that before. 

"The five of you were made with weapons, to attack and protect," Alfor supplied, "and now would be a perfect time to test those attributes." 

"That would mean," You started slowly, "that we would leave the lab." Glancing back towards the others, they all seemed to share the same expression that you did. Excitement. "What are we waiting for then," You grinned, "let's go fight a beast!"

"Yeah!" Blue, Green, and Yellow cheered behind you. 

Red grabbed onto your shoulder. "Are you sure? We don't even know these people."

You let your grin fall a little bit. "A planet's in danger, Red, I'm not just about to let it continue to be in danger. Would you?"

Red shook his head. "No."

"Good." You turned back to the five people in front of you. "So, how do we get you...Daibazaal, you said?" 

"We fly." Was Alfor's answer. 

Despite having both Alfor and Zarkon call the five of you ships, the lions and you did not fly to Daibazaal yourself. Instead, you saw a brief moment of the outside world of Altea before being thrown on another ship. One that was the complete opposite of the lab the five of you had just been in. Instead of pure white walls decorated with blue accents and machines that blinked in multiple colours, the walls were dark—not quite black but more of a really dark grey—with glowing, purple designs that covered them in different places no matter where you looked. All of you had been amazed at how different it looked compared to where you had just been. 

All of you were amazed at how the stars looked from the bridge. All of those little, glowing lights were all thousands of miles away and yet you could still see the faint glow of them from where you were in the galaxy. You just wanted to reach out and grab as many as you could, hold them in your arms and stare at them for vargas on end. 

However, you couldn't, because you had a planet that needed help getting rid of a monster.

The five people who had entered the lab were still arguing over whether the four lions and you could actually do it. And they refused to call you anything other than children. 

"Yes, I know they are supposedly the ships that you told us about, Alfor," Trigel pinched the bridge of her nose, squinting her eyes closed, "but all I see are five children that you have kept locked up in a lab for decaphoebs." 

"Not to mention that they're apparently named after colours!" Gyrgan added in quickly, before turning back to the conversation he was having with Yellow. 

"When we get close to Daibazaal, you will see what I'm talking about," Alfor explained calmly, but you could tell, by the way his mouth was frowning, that he was getting annoyed. 

"I'm not sending five children into a fighting zone!" Zarkon bellowed out, glaring at Alfor. 

Alfor gave a sigh. "They are not children."

"Yeah!" Blue added in. "I've been up for, like, a decaphoeb now?" She sounded unsure, glancing around at the ground as she ended her sentence before looking back up at you. "And Black's been awake for almost three, at least!" 

Everyone's faces paled at that, except for Alfor's.

Trigel turned back to Alfor, even angrier than before. "So, we're not sending children, but infants?" Oh, yeah, another word that you were pretty sure meant some kind of youth. Something that, to be honest, you were not sure if you were or not. You had never actually seen a baby before, or anyone other than the five people in front of you in the past three-ish decaphoebs. 

"They aren't Altean, or Galran, or anything else," Alfor pointed out, "they're ships, hence, they don't have an age. They have always looked like this."

"Age does not equal maturity," Blaytz brought up, looking up from the map he had been staring at the whole time the ten of you had been on the ship. "We're nearing Daibazaal."

Spinning around on your heel, you glanced out the bridge's large window. In front of the ship, a fair distance away, enough that you could see the entirety of it, was a planet. It wasn't round like the pictures Alfor had shown you of Altea, and there were no rings around it either. Instead, the top of it was round and red, while the ends split off into pointed edges that made the planet look like it was being shot off into space. It wasn't, however, and was only spinning slowly enough that you couldn't tell, but you knew it was happening because Alfor had once explained that all planets spin. 

Another thing that you could see from the window was a giant hole, glowing yellow, nearly in the center of the planet, and a giant black thing spinning around it. Your face dropped at the sight of it. Instantly, you knew that that was the beast Zarkon and the others had been talking about. 

"That's the monster, isn't it?" Red grimaced as he stared out the window, as he had been the entire trip. 

"That it would be," Alfor sighed. "We should head to the hangar, there isn't any way to get the five of you out of this ship if we don't."

You glanced between the other four lions, each of you sharing some sort of frightened look. This now seemed like a lot harder than you had previously thought it would be. Especially since none of you had any experience fighting while you were lions, and, by the looks of the beast on Daibazaal, you would need to. There was no way that fighting in your shrunken forms would be able to cut it. 

Leaving the bridge behind, the five of you followed behind Alfor while the other four people followed behind the five of you. It was unnerving, with them following behind you, but you straightened up as much as you could and tried to keep a determined face that didn't give away how frightened you actually were. 

Upon reaching the bridge, you couldn't help but marvel for a second at how much bigger than the lab it was. All of the lions could easily fit inside it, and while in your lion form as well. However, that may also be because there was no other ship inside of the hanger, leaving it empty and barren. You couldn't help but make a connection to the empty white lab the five of you had left on Altea. 

You just hoped that you hadn't exchanged the white lab for a grey and purple hanger.

"There are not any ships here," Zarkon announced. "I do not see how we are supposed to get to Daibazaal without them."

"Lions," Alfor addressed the five of them, "now would be the time. Make sure to find proper space before you do so." You knew what he was talking about, but from the look of the other people, they had absolutely no idea.

You couldn't understand why Alfor didn't just tell them that the five of you could transform into giant lions that were technically ships.

Silently, the five of you found spots in the hangar to properly transform without bumping into each other. The five people waited near the doors, and that made you nervous. You couldn't help but feel like you wouldn't be able to transform with them watching you. 

When each of the lions found a spot, you nodded between the four of you. With you in the middle, Red and Green on either of your sides, and then Blue beside Red and Yellow beside Green, you had hope that the five of you would have enough room. You had no idea if you were evenly spaced out enough. It was hard to tell just by your eyesight alone. 

With an intake of breath, you closed your eyes and let the feeling of transforming wash over you. Having your eyes open while doing it was always disorienting. Watching as the world either shrunk or grew depending on which way you transformed was strange. Doing it in a completely new area would probably make it all the worse though. 

When the feeling stopped, you opened your eyes, and was instantly faced with the wide eyed and opened jawed faces of the people Alfor had brought into the lab. You couldn’t help but feel like you had to hide, that their reactions were ones of some not good emotion that you hadn’t figured out quite yet. Alfor didn’t seem to be fazed by the emotions on his friends’ (were they his friends? You didn’t really know) faces, and just strolled right up to you. 

“Everyone, head off to a lion. Lions, it’s like we’ve practiced, lower your head and then your ramp to allow us to go in to be able to pilot you,” Alfor announced to the nine of you.

Despite the fact that Alfor stood in front of you, and you knew that he wanted to be the one to pilot you, your eyes searched for Zarkon. He’s the one who’s planet was in danger, and seeing as you were the largest lion (something the five of you had figured out during a test Red had been forced to go through), it only made sense that he would pilot you. You were the one who would take up the most room and since Zarkon knew his planet the best, you wouldn’t hit as many obstacles? You didn’t really know.

Honestly, you just felt like Zarkon was a better fit to pilot you than Alfor.

So, instead of bending down in front of Alfor, you shimmied your way towards Zarkon. After staring down at him for what felt like a dobash, at least (probably not, you didn’t have that kind of time at the moment), you lowered your head, the ramp that extended from your mouth falling down with a soft clank on the floor of the ship.

“It would seem,” Zarkon started, clearing his throat as he looked past you to glance over at Alfor, “that the lions also wish to choose who pilots them.”

“That makes sense,” Trigel pointed up as she walked up to Green, “they are just as sentient as we are.” Placing a hand onto Green’s nose, you could see a slight smile from Trigel. “Would you allow me to pilot you?” 

“The lions cannot talk while in this form.” You felt as if Alfor was just pointing out the obvious, and almost moved your head to glare at him, even if it would be difficult to tell. Yet, a hand on the part of your mouth that the ramp escaped from stopped you. If you were to move at all, Zarkon would most definitely fall off. You really didn’t want to make a bad impression already.

Trigel glared at Alfor for you anyway. “Yes,” she dragged out a little, “but, as we’ve just seen, the..lions can choose who they wish to pilot them. Even if they can’t verbally answer, I can still ask.”

Seeing as Green had already lowered her head enough for Trigel to touch her nose, Green had already chosen Trigel as the one to pilot her. The ramp extending from her mouth only proved that further. 

“Thank you, Beautiful.” Trigel gave a little pat to the side of Green’s mouth as she entered. 

It would seem both Blue and Yellow had chosen who would pilot them in the time that it took for Trigel to disappear into Green and you deemed it safe enough to move your head. Only Alfor remained on the floor, with Red being the only lion left. You highly doubted that Alfor would just stay on the ship, so that meant that he would be piloting Red. You wondered what Red thought about that. You know that the two of them didn’t really have the best relationship, what with Alfor seemingly never letting Red rest after a test. 

The sound of air hissing out into the space beyond knocked you out of your thoughts, and made you jerk your head towards the opening hatch. The red planet, Daibazaal, was right outside the hatch. All you needed to do was take a step forward, maybe more than one actually, and you would be outside in the stars. You glanced around at the other lions beside you, each staring at you as if waiting for you to take the first step out into what was the unknown for the five of you. 

The best course of action wasn’t just to walk out into space, but, to instead, run.

The moment your back paws flew out of the ship, panic filled your mind. Due to the fact that space didn’t have any gravity, unlike both the lab and the ship, there wasn’t anyway for you to actually run. Instead, you floated away from the ship slowly, with your mind freaking out. Because, if you couldn’t move, how were you supposed to get back to the ship or land on Daibazaal to even defeat the monster? 

Behind you, you could see that the others were having the same troubles you were. 

“Alfor!” Zarkon yelled out, although, you didn’t know if Alfor could actually hear him or not. “How are we supposed to get to Daibazaal if we cannot move?” 

And then Green was speeding forward, a laugh sounding throughout your head. 

“Isn’t there controls in your cockpit, Zarkon?” You heard Trigel ask, a hint of playfulness in her voice, and with Green flying in front of you, you understood why she asked that. 

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Yellow accidentally bump into Blue, sending her spinning. 

“There’s certainly none in mine!” Blaytz sounded frightened, if only a little. “Alfor, did you only install controls in one of the lions?” 

“We do not have time for this!” Zarkon bellowed, and you heard a soft growl at the end of that. “My planet is in danger!” 

“I’ll try to keep it from destroying anything more than it already has while the four of you figure whatever is going on out,” Trigel called out, although her voice sounded the exact same in your head, as Green sped off towards the red planet. 

“I thought these lions- children- whatever they are were supposed to be ships?” Gyrgan didn’t sound half as frightened as Blaytz, probably because Yellow wasn’t spinning like Blue, but he did sound a little scared at the most. 

“They are,” Alfor snapped. “I don’t know why they don’t have controls. Truth be told, I’ve never actually- wait, no, I have stepped foot in one of them but I was instantly dropped out without seeing anything.” 

“And you didn’t think to board them once again to see if they had controls?” There was anger in Zarkon’s voice, something that Alfor only had when Red refused to participate in the tests. 

“It had not come to my attention, no.”

“Trigel,” Blaytz attempted conversation but he sounded strained, “was there-” he stopped to gag, “was there any controls when you first entered?”

“I sat in the chair and the lion pushed me to the controls,” Trigel explained, although she sounded slightly distracted. 

“It pushed you?” Alfor questioned, although it sounded like one of those questions that he didn’t want you or any of the others to answer. 

“I don’t know!” Trigel yelled out, grunting as a crash came from wherever she was. “You guys need to get down here soon, I don’t think I can hold it off alone for long!” 

Zarkon had been right. None of you had time for this, and by what Trigel said, you needed to get down there immediately. You wanted to help. You hadn’t meant to freak out once you entered open space. It wasn’t your fault you didn’t know how to fly. Alfor had never taken the five of you out of the lab before. You were surprised that Green had been able to get up and go like she had. Trigel had said something about controls-

Controls.

Alfor had once explained controls to you, while you had been alone and watching a machine work on Yellow. A machine regularly needed someone to input commands in to make it move, and even if there wasn’t anyone doing so currently, there was usually some sort of code that allowed it to work on its own.

You didn’t know how to fly yet, but since Green had controls, you probably did too. 

Zarkon could help teach you how to fly.

You just needed to figure out how to tell Zarkon that. There wasn’t anyway you could actually talk to him like this. Not with the fact that your mouth was the exit.

_ ‘Help me.’ _ Echoed throughout your mind, hoping that somehow you’d be able to project the thought to Zarkon. ‘ _ Teach me how to fly.’  _

Zarkon said something, but nothing that you actually understood and something slapped the inside of your head (which was a very weird feeling). “Controls,” Zarkon whispered. 

_ ‘Teach me.’ _

“How to fly?”

_ ‘Yes.’ _

Zarkon didn’t reply.

Instead, you felt the need to go forward. A deep need that begged to control your entire being. You fought it, dancing around with it for a moment before realizing. This was Zarkon. Zarkon was teaching you. This was how Zarkon was going to teach you how to fly.

So, you let go. You let the need overtake you. 

And then you were bolting towards the planet. Faster than you had ever ran before. 

“Way to go Zarkon!” Gyrgan cheered. “How’d you do it?” 

Zarkon was silent for a moment. “The lion asked for me to teach-” he paused for a moment, “how to fly?” 

“The lion asked you to teach it how to fly?” Alfor echoed back. 

“Yes!” Zarkon exclaimed as the two of you soared towards the planet. “And, no. It was more a feeling than words.”

“Them not knowing how to fly makes sense,” Groaned Blaytz. A split second later came a, “Woah. Zarkon, is this what you felt?” 

Zarkon seemed almost distracted, and with the ground of Daibazaal coming up, you didn’t blame him. “I do not know. Describe it to me?” 

“Angry?”

You wanted to snort at that. Of course, after the comment Blaytz made, Blue would be angry at it. 

“Ah. No? It was-” Zarkon paused, and you could tell why.

Green flew at it, blue flames blasting her towards it, only for it to mold itself so she went straight through a hole. A thick tendril of it sped towards her, smacking her into a hill and leaving a small crater behind from the impact. 

“ _ What in the galaxy is that? _ ” Zarkon questioned with urgency, yet you had no idea what he actually said. However, you felt as if whatever words he had said fit for whatever you were thinking.

The beast wasn’t what you were expecting. Instead of some storybook monster, like the ones Alfor told you begrudgingly, it didn’t seem to take any certain shape. It molded itself to fit whatever it needed, shrinking and expanding at will depending on what it decided to do. There was no colour to it, either, it was almost as if you were staring into a void of nothingness.

“What are you doing, Zarkon? Help me attack it already!” Trigel yelled out in annoyance, with Green attempting to get a hit on the beast before slipping through another hole it made. 

“Wait, what did the lion make you feel?” Blaytz questioned. You wondered how you were able to hear him talk although he and Blue were still out in space. 

“Help!” Zarkon answered. “The feeling was help!” 

“They don’t know how to fly,” Alfor muttered over whatever you were able to hear him through. “Lions, you don’t know how to fly! Allow us to teach you!” 

Zarkon helped you dodge one of the tendrils that the beast sent out, sending you rolling over the top of it, your back missing it by a small measurement. Just dodging and throwing yourself at it wasn’t doing anything though. You needed something more, a weapon of something; although, you were fairly certain that you couldn’t use your sword in your lion form. Maybe if you had something you could throw at it, it wouldn’t expect it and then you would be able to find a way to defeat it? 

An idea hit, just as the monster smacked you against the ground, sending a jolting pain through your body. 

Pushing yourself off of the ground, you opened your mouth. Which, if this idea didn’t hit you, probably would have seemed like a bad idea since that was the entrance to your cockpit. Yet, you had hope that opening your mouth would not kill Zarkon, but, instead, would harm the monster if only a little. 

You willed a weapon out, wanting to injure the monster with all of your might. You didn’t know if Zarkon could help with this or not, so you attempted to do it yourself. Yet, you couldn’t help but send out your thoughts of  _ weapons _ to him much like you had with your thoughts of having him teach you to fly. 

Really, you hadn’t known what you were expecting.

But a laser really,  _ really,  _ wasn’t what you were expecting.

Hope swelled up in your chest as you watched the blue beam blast towards the monster.

And then you felt it fall as the monster made the beam hit Green on the other side of itself, opening the hole at just the right moment.

“Zarkon!” Barked Trigel.

“I didn’t know it would do that!” 

“Did someone call for help?” Blaytz laughed over the line as Blue sped towards the monster. Only to hit a rock that the monster was hiding behind itself. 

“Nice of you to join us, you three,” Trigel let out a soft laugh, although the irritation was still there. 

Red and Yellow pulled up beside you, blue blasts keeping them off of the ground. 

“How are we supposed to defeat that?” Gyrgan questioned, probably watching as Blue and Blaytz attempted to attack the monster like Green and you had been doing for the past few dobashes. 

“There must be some way,” Alfor breathed out. You had heard this tone of voice before, when Alfor had been amazed at what Red could do, the things that made him different from the others and you. Alfor was in awe of the monster, even if it was destroying Daibazaal. 

Red bolted to one side, with Yellow and you rolling to the other as a tendril slapped down onto the ground where the three of you had once been. Green and Blue were both dealing with their own tendril. It would seem that the monster had realized that there were five of you now, and were sending out a tendril for each of you. 

“Well,” Zarkon started as he steered you away from both the side of a mountain and a tendril, “lasers did not seem to work on it.”

“We need to be faster,” Trigel pointed out with panting breaths, even though she was only piloting Green, “it’s calculating our moves and adjusting its body to avoid them.”

“And how are we supposed to get faster?” You could hear strain in Blaytz’s voice as he spun Blue around one of the tendrils, pulling up right before crashing into the side of a mountain. “There doesn’t seem to be a speed up button. Unless you’re hiding that from me as well.” 

There had to be a way to defeat this beast. There must be.

“Well, we obviously aren’t getting anywhere alone!” Zarkon pointed out as a tendril came zooming towards you. 

Alone. The ten of you were attacking this thing one at a time. It had gotten slower when the others had come in but not by much. You didn’t know if it was surprised that there were so many of you, or if it was just because there were more targets, but either way it had gotten slightly slower. 

If it was because it had been surprised, you may have an idea.

_ ‘Together.’ _ You thought, echoing it as loud as you could throughout your mind. 

_ ‘Together.’ _ Came four other voices, that nearly startled you enough to make you jump directly into a tendril. 

It was then that it hit you (and no, it wasn’t a tendril this time). Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow could all hear you. Maybe not all the time, but this time they did. And they were thinking the same thing you were.

But, just to be sure-

_ ‘Together’.  _ You sent again. ‘ _ We fight.’  _

_ ‘We get it!’  _ Came an annoyed voice that sounded almost exactly like Blue. 

_ ‘As one.’  _ You added.

_ ‘How?’  _ Red questioned, and you spotted him maneuvering around a tendril on the other side of the monster.  _ ‘It knows our moves. _ ’

_ ‘We surprise it.’  _ Alfor had told you, once, early on when it was only you, that you were made from a comet. It would only make sense that the other four were also made from the comet. ‘ _ We were once one comet, maybe we can be one again?’  _ That sounded a lot better in your head, and not as strange as it would seem. 

‘ _ How would we do that?’  _ Green asked, floating beside you for a moment before Trigel moved her out of the way of a tendril.

‘ _ Fly together in a line, maybe? _ ’ Supplied Yellow, who had taken residence on the ground and was running around with a tendril following not far behind. ‘ _ Since we’re all ships, maybe we can make a bigger ship!’ _

‘ _That...might work,_ _let’s try it._ ’ Feeling confident, you stopped following the need to move from Zarkon, and instead flew yourself up. 

“What are the lions doing?” Trigel questioned as Green flew next to your left side.

“They seem to be,” Alfor started as Red pulled up to your right, “flying in some sort of formation?” 

If you could’ve, you would have pulled in a breath as Yellow pulled up beside Green and Blue beside Red. You had no idea if this would work, but you really hoped it did. And, if it did, that by doing whatever was going to happen stopped the monster. 

You really,  _ really,  _ hoped that this worked.

Everything felt weird. Your legs retracted, slipping who knows where, and then there was the awfully strange feeling of having new legs and arms being attached to you. They clicked into place, and you could feel them as an extension of your own body. However, unlike when you were in your shrunken form, you couldn’t move them and they didn’t have any fingers.

‘ _ I’m a leg!’  _ Cheered Yellow, knocking you out of your thoughts about how strange this all felt. 

“They’ve combined,” Alfor breathed out.

“Into one giant-” Whatever word Zarkon was going to say didn’t come out, but he finished whatever Alfor was going to say anyway. 

“Ship?” Gyrgan questioned. Maybe that was the word that Zarkon couldn’t find?

Zarkon was silent for a moment. “No, they are something else.”

“Guys! We better watch out!” Trigel screamed out and you felt your left arm (that was Green, Green was your left arm and your hand was a lion head) pull away from your body. The rest of you followed suit as a giant tendril drilled its way towards you.

Only for Red to get caught, the black tendril snaking its way around him. 

The black tendril pulled you down, yanking you towards the giant black mass. You needed to get rid of it, to slash it with something and get it off of Red. If you had your sword, you’d be able to do so, but you couldn’t summon it when-

Wait.

You weren’t, technically, in your lion form at the moment.

_ We need a sword!  _ You yelled out into whatever was collecting your thoughts. 

_ A sword?  _ Red chuckled, seeming too calm for the fact that he was being pulled down into the monster.  _ I can do that. _

Blue’s and Yellow’s jets pushed you away from the monster, making it so your body was slightly slanted as Red was pulled down and the rest of you was pulled up. You face the monster head on, with your feet almost above your head, when it happened.

A quick flash of fire surrounded your eyes, and then you were flying up at an alarming speed, nearly spinning out of control.

“That’s a sword!” Gyrgan screamed out in awe.

Gathering yourself, you admired the blade in your hand for a moment. All you saw was two different shades of blue before the monster lunged at you. Using the side of the blade to block it, you pushed back against the monster. You watched with curious eyes as the monster squirmed under the blade, almost as if it was in pain. 

This was working.

The monster fled, backing away back to the rest of its body. All you needed to do was get rid of that, and the monster would be gone. Right?

Chasing after the tendril, sword in hand, you slashed at what you could. Well, Red slashed at what he could since he was in control of the arm with the sword in it. Either way, the monster’s body was slowly disintegrating after one cut from the blade. Almost as if the blade was some type of fire for the monster. You didn’t really care how it was happening, it was getting rid of the monster. It was getting rid of whatever the thing that was plaguing Daibazaal was. 

So, after slashing and hacking at it until it was no bigger than you as a lion, Red stabbed the sword in his mouth through the center of the monstrous blob. 

And, just like that, it was gone.

“We did it,” Zarkon breathed out, almost sounding like it couldn’t have been real. 

A flash of colour surrounded you, and you were met with the other four lions staring at you. The five of you floating around in a circle. Whatever thing the five of you had combined into was gone now. You finally had control of your legs again.

“We should land,” Alfor pointed out with a breath. “Zarkon, lead the way.”

“Right.”

Landing was an experience. You had no idea how to stop flying, at first, before Zarkon slowly eased you into it. You had no idea how Yellow had been able to do so in the middle of battle. Gyrgan had probably taught him how; just like Zarkon had taught you. 

Zarkon had assisted you in landing in front of a building, a purple glow emanating from it. Everyone else followed suit, seeing as Alfor had told Zarkon to lead the way (you supposed it was because this was Zarkon’s planet). Upon all of the pilots leaving the lions, the five of you shrunk back down to their size so you would be able to participate in whatever conversation they were about to have. Obviously they were going to have one. They had just defeated a monster together, with the help of you five lions, of course. 

“That was crazy.” Were the first words out of Blaytz’s mouth as he strode up to the others, Blue following behind him. They had been the last to land, as Blue seemed to want to stretch her legs out and fly around for a bit longer. 

“Indeed it was,” Alfor confirmed with a nod. “I’m glad that it’s done with now.”

Right. It was done now. There was no need for you or the other lions anymore.

You frowned down at the ground, fingers picking at the sleeve of your shirt. “Do we have to go back to the lab now, Alfor?” Around you, the faces of your fellow lions fell. 

“Wait, hold a moment now,” Trigel interrupted whatever Alfor was about to say, his mouth open but no words coming out. “You aren’t going to let these children just stay in that lab forever. They deserve to be free, Alfor. Just because they also just so happen to be sentient ships shouldn’t change that.”

“I never said they would be going back to the lab,” Alfor defended rather quickly.

“Would you have introduced us to them had there been no big monster that we wouldn’t be able to defeat without them?” Trigel inquired, quirking a white brow bone. Her arms were crossed across her chest as Green looked up at her with hope in her eyes.

You probably held that same hope in your eyes. You really didn’t want to go back to the lab. Especially not after you had been let outside. You never wanted to leave now.

“Well, you’re never getting this one back!” Blaytz bent himself over Blue, rubbing a hand over her hair, making tangles in the straightness that you knew took her dobashes on the ship as the ten of you flew to Daibazaal. Blue, unlike the time Red had done that to her, didn’t push Blaytz off, only glared at him with annoyance. “She’s got spunk! I like her!”

“You’ve barely spent a quintant with it,” Alfor pointed out with a frown. 

You didn’t like the way he called Blue an it.

“She’s,” Blaytz dragged out, and you can’t help but think that he didn’t like the way Alfor had said that either, “been around me for long enough for me to know that, since, ya know, you kinda kept them locked up in a lab, she’s not going back with you if that’s going to be the case.”

“Perhaps we should talk to them about it?” Gyrgan offered, clearing his voice as his hand rested on Yellow’s shoulder. “And be properly introduced to them? We only got a quick version of one in the lab, and I don’t recall all of your names.”

“Yellow!” He piped out quickly, a squeak coming from his mouth. “My name is Yellow.”

Everyone seemed to frown at that, except Alfor and the rest of you.

“And the rest of you?” Gyrgan glanced out at the rest of you, waiting. You couldn’t help but feel like you would say something wrong.

“My name’s Red.” Red spoke quietly beside Alfor, not standing beside him, but behind. Red didn’t seem as, well, like himself as usual. 

Blue grinned as she slipped in front of Blaytz, pointing to her chest with a finger and her thumb stuck out. “I’m Blue!”

“And I’m Green,” she waved as she stood beside Trigel. 

And now it was your turn.

“Black,” You breathed out, but you couldn’t help but think that was wrong now. “My name’s Black.”

“You didn’t even give them proper names?” Trigel snarled towards Alfor, taking graceful yet heavy steps towards him. “Alfor, have you not noticed that these are children?”

“Children you just used to fight a monster,” Red pointed out, almost so softly that you had barely heard him even though you stood across from him. Trigel’s eyes widened. “We may look like whatever these...children are, but we’re really not. I’ve been awake for about a phoeb, but I’ve been told Alfor worked on me for almost a decaphoeb before I woke up.” Red’s fists clenched beside him. “We’re- we’re not like your species.”

You wondered at what point Red had had time to think about all of this. Alfor had explained different species to the five of you a little bit ago, having decided to give all five of you the knowledge at the same time as not to repeat himself. The most likely answer to your question was then, but you felt like it happened later than that. Perhaps on the ship? You would never really know unless you asked him. 

“Still,” Trigel dragged out sadly, “Alfor should have never locked the five of you up. And he should have given you proper names other than just colours.”

Blaytz and Gyrgan nodded in agreement. Feeling a hand rest on your shoulder, you glanced up to notice that Zarkon looked particularly angry at Alfor. You had a feeling that he was agreeing with what Trigel was saying as well.

“Perhaps,” Alfor spoke up, sounding just the same as he always had, as if none of this was affecting him all that much. Or, if it was, he didn’t show it, “we should allow the lions to choose for themselves, if you are so sure that they are children and should be treated as such.” Once again, you didn’t like how he worded it.

No one spoke for a moment. But it was Blue who was the first to speak after it.

“I,” She started, her voice higher than it normally sounded. “I would like a name.”

“Me too,” Green spoke up, her arms holding each other. 

“I wouldn’t mind one that wasn’t Yellow.”

“I don’t really like being called Red.” You felt a pang of hurt at that, not that Red didn’t like being called Red but that he never voiced it until now.

And, now, it was just you.

“I,” Your voice was shaky as you stared out at the four pilots in front of you, feeling Zarkon’s hand on your shoulder give you a gentle squeeze and you took that as a comfort. “I don’t know what name I would have. I-I don’t really know any other names. But,” You took a breath, “I wouldn’t mind a different one.”

“None of us do,” Green pointed out, glancing down at the ground after having stared at you for a moment. 

“If you would like,” Trigel bent down so that she was able to look Green in the eyes, even with her head bent down, “I can offer you a name. You don’t need to take it, but perhaps a suggestion could help you think of some that sound more along the lines of something you would like.”

“Spunky,” Blaytz blurted out, resting an arm on Blue’s shoulder. “I think that should be your name.”

“What?” Blue exclaimed, looking over Blaytz as if he had suddenly said that the sky was made out of candy. “No way.” And so, Blaytz continued to list off names to Blue. 

Gyrgan seemed to be doing the same to Yellow, resting a hand on his shoulder much like Zarkon was doing to you. Red, however, didn’t seem to be talking to Alfor.

You spun slowly on your heel, barely catching as Zarkon bent down on one knee to meet your eyes, one arm resting on his knee while the other stayed planted on your shoulder.

“Do you,” You fiddled around with your fingers, “do you think you could give me some name suggestions?”

Zarkon gave you a light smile. “I think I can do that.” His eyes wandered for a bit, before landing back to meet yours. “What about,” the name that came tumbling out his mouth was, well, you didn’t really have a word for it. It sounded like you. That was really the easiest you could put it.

You let the name flow out of your own mouth, giving it a test run, before nodding. “I like it.”

“Already?” Zarkon laughed softly. “I was expecting maybe a couple more tries.”

You shook your head. “No, I like that one. It sounds...it sounds like me.”

“It means,” Zarkon frowned for a moment, saying a word that you didn’t understand before shaking his head, “it means victorious leader in Galran.”

“Leader?” You whispered, the word falling from your lips before your mind could stop it. You weren’t a leader.

“Names have meaning,” Zarkon began to explain, “but the five of you work as a unit, with no clear leader.” Although, maybe being the body of that big thing the five of you made would make you so you were considered the leader? You didn’t really think you were, though. You didn’t feel like one. “It was the closest I could think of for something that fit for you, however.”

“Oh.” Was the only thing that came out of your mouth. You felt like anymore and you would be crying. There was no clear reason. Maybe it was because you were happy? You just felt like this moment would be something someone would cry at, even if it was just you getting a name. 

“I’m ready to say my name!” Blue, or whatever she had chosen now, cheerfully yelled out, and you could just hear the smile on her face. “We should do it together! Introduce each other like we did before, but better this time!” 

With everyone facing the middle once more, you couldn’t help but glance around at everyone’s faces. Everyone looked like a mix of happy and sad, at the same time. Green even looked like she had tears running down her face, her and Trigel both, but Trigel had a smile on her face as she rested both of her hands on Green’s shoulders.

Yellow took a step forward. “My name’s Yuri.”

Blue flashed the biggest grin you had ever seen her do. “My name’s Bay!”

Green squeezed one of Trigel’s hands. “My name’s Grove.”

Red had stepped out from behind Alfor, but almost didn’t seem as happy as the others. “Rogan.”

And then, it was just you.

You took in a breath and smiled. “My name’s-”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yuri - Greek for Farmer  
> Grove - grove of trees  
> Bay - berry (???, i swear when i picked like 2ish years ago it meant some type of water)  
> Rogan - redhead
> 
> obviously, i decided to make your name 'victorious leader' in Galran, so that way it doesn't conflict with what your name actually means or anything. i figured the Galra would have a lot of names that mean victorious and leader and the such.


	4. three-one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy crap, i am so freaking sorry that this has taken so long. in return, here's half of what chapter three was going to be to give you guys _something_ to read while i work on the rest. 
> 
> i know i made a little note earlier that i had gotten beta readers but about a week after i posted that they started ignoring me T^T so i'm just going to go over them myself some more. 
> 
> also, i'm not a big fan of the name anymore so i'm probably gonna be changing that up. when i eventually do i'll put it in the chapter summary that it's changed from golden eyes to whatever i'm gonna change it to so that way the email notifications aren't confusing. i'm also probably gonna be sending out shorter chapters so they come out faster and they're easier to reread to catch mistakes (of which i probably still miss some).
> 
> hope you enjoy!

“So,” Grove is the one to break the silence, dragging that one word out and catching everyone’s attention, “what happens now?”

The question, if anything, made the silence even worse to bear as everyone glanced around at each other. The five of you had picked names, sure, but what happened after that? Everyone had chosen someone that they seemed almost close to, a little close for only having met several vargas before, but what did that entail? Would they decide they wanted to keep you? Everyone, minus Alfor who hadn’t said much about it, had said that they didn’t want the five of you returning to the lab. So, where would you go instead? Would the five of you even be able to live whatever was a normal life wherever you went? All you knew was the blank white walls of a lab and glowing buttons of blinking machines. 

Really, what happens now?

The monster of Daibazaal had been defeated, somehow, by the five of you forming one giant mechanical beast of some sort. There wasn’t any need for you now. There wasn’t any monster out there to destroy the world. That was what Alfor had brought to the others to you for. And now that the monster was gone, none of you really had any worth. Unless you went back to the lab, to perform more tests on Red—Rogan, his name was Rogan now, not Red, none of you had the names of colours anymore—and that didn’t really sound like a suiting ending for what you thought would be something good. 

You didn’t want to go back to the lab; if anything, you wanted to stay as far away as you could from it.

“Now,” Zarkon spoke up, swallowing as his fingers gave a gentle squeeze to your shoulders, “now, I will repair what damages that monster made to my planet.” You could feel his gaze on you as he spoke, causing you to meet his eyes with your own. “You are welcome to stay with me, if you wish,” you still weren’t used to being actually called a name that wasn’t a colour, so hearing your name come from Zarkon (even if he had been the one to give it to you) was a bit surprising.

While debating your answer, you briefly overheard the others give similar offers to the other lions (Alfor and Rogan were surprisingly quiet, however).

“Obviously,” Trigel interrupted the separate conversations, “the four of us would assist Zarkon in helping fix up what the monster destroyed.” She gave a smile off to Zarkon, who returned it with a nod. “How long do you think that would take?” 

Zarkon kept quiet for a moment. “No more than a movement, I believe. Around that if all of us work together as a team.”

Blaytz clapped his hands together. “Great!” His smile fell a little. “Well, not really. But with it taking a movement, these guys,” he pulled Bay towards him slightly, causing her to stumble and nearly trip into him, “will be given enough time to decide what they want to do.”

“I could always take them all back to Altea,” Alfor announced, and nearly everyone’s heads whipped towards him, “let them think there as to not get in the way.”

“Get in the way?” Gyrgan laughed. “If anything, they’d help speed it up!” 

“I’m not going back.” Your mouth moved before you could even think about how you wanted to say it, just blurting out those words without your consent. Now, everyone was looking at you. Swallowing, you clenched your fist up for a moment before releasing it. “I’m not going back to the lab. I don’t- I’m not going. I was there for too long.” Which meant that the only option given to you was to stay with Zarkon. Glancing back up at him, hoping that he wouldn’t take back his offer now that you had expressed an interest in it. “Can I-” Your mouth stopped moving and soon you found yourself unable to finish the sentence you had been planning on asking. It was like you had just forgotten the words you had taken so long to learn. 

Zarkon’s hand moved from your shoulder to your arm, giving it a slight rub. “I gave you the offer, did I not? Of course you can,” he reassured. 

It felt easier to breathe, after that. 

Something surprising then happened. Sure, you had seen Alfor do it a few times before when he had come into the lab, but none of the five of you had done it before. 

Green—Grove—yawned. Even she seemed surprised that she had done it. 

After a moment of silence, Trigel laughed. “It would seem that someone’s tired. Perhaps we should talk more after the five young ones have gotten some sleep. That fight probably took a lot out of them.”

Everyone seemed to agree with that statement, or, everyone that was used to being tired which was really just everyone other than you and the other four lions. 

Zarkon had led the nine of you to a place that looked like a castle, like the one Alfor had shown you before in the lab but in a different style. Instead of pristine white walls and golden accents, this one was a dark purple with brighter, glowing accents. It also wasn’t shaped like the castle Alfor had shown you, so you’re not really sure what made you think of the castle, but that’s what you’re pretty sure it was. 

While leading you through the corridors, Zarkon abruptly stopped and turned back to face you. “Ah, I probably should have asked before, but would the five of you like separate ones, or one large one,” he frowned for a moment, saying something that you didn’t really understand. “Would the five of you like to share a room or each have your own?” 

“Room?” Rogan had been the one to speak up about what Zarkon meant by that. 

“Yes,” Trigel sounded confused, “a room. How did the five of you sleep before? I don’t think we would want to disrupt it too much so how you did before would probably be better.”

“We slept in the lab,” You explained, beginning to get a little confused on what the ten of you were now talking about. 

Trigel sent a glare towards Alfor for a moment before turning back to you. “Alright. Did you sleep in a room full of a lot of beds, or only one?”

“We slept on the floor.” You’re not sure if it was Bay or Grove who had said that, but it did make everyone’s eyes snap towards Alfor. 

“All around in a little pile, almost,” Yuri added in with a slight smile. 

You couldn’t fault him for that, anytime the five of you weren’t doing tests were the best times you had in the lab. And that included sleeping on the floor all huddled up. 

“We will talk about this later,” Zarkon shot off towards Alfor, and you dearly hoped that you would never be on the opposite end of that glare. “For now, I believe one large room would be best.” You didn’t know exactly what that meant so you didn’t object or say anything else.

Zarkon led you around a bit more before stopping in front of a door. It opened with a soft hiss that reminded you of the way the lab door opened, only different and you couldn’t put why. You half expected Alfor to step out from behind the door, but that would be impossible as he stood behind you—behind everyone at the back of the group. Instead, there was only a raised area that looked to be cushioned or something of the sort.

“What’s that?” Grove questioned as she peaked her head into the room. 

Trigel blinked beside her. “What’s what?” 

Grove frowned, and with a limp figure, gestured the raised cushioned area. “What’s that?”

“The,” Trigel paused for a moment as she glanced towards what Grove was pointing towards, “the bed?” 

“What’s a bed?” Yuri piped up from behind you. 

“That thing,” Bay gestured to what you now know was a bed in the middle of the room. She laughed a little as she did, and you can’t help but send a small scold towards her. 

“Have you five never seen a bed before?” Gyrgan—everyone really—was sounding more and more concerned about what the five of you did and did not know. Was the way you lived before now not normal for them?

“We slept on the floor,” Rogan pointed out. Although, you- oh. A bed was for sleeping on, it would seem. At least, you were pretty sure; there wasn’t enough room on the floor for the five of you to sleep comfortably in the room and there wasn’t really anything else that you would think to sleep on in it. 

“Well,” Blaytz started, clicking his tongue and glancing at Alfor for a moment before turning back to the five of you with a grin, “now you get to know the wonders that is a soft and comfortable bed! How about the five of you go get comfortable while we,” Blaytz paused for a moment, humming a little as his head nodded left to right a few times, “adults go have a little chat about recently learned things. You’re going to need your rest for tomorrow morning!”

Not being able to find any argument with what Blaytz said, the five of you entered the room. The adults, as Blaytz had called himself and the others, left after bidding a good night to the five of you. Closing the door behind them, the soft hiss was back and you half expected the sound of the elevator Alfor took to get down to the lab to follow after it, but it didn’t. You weren’t in the lab anymore. You were in a room, with a bed, in a building that wasn’t the lab. 

The edge of the bed caved in under your weight as you sat as close to the edge as you could to try it out. The other four also tried the bed out, Bay being the most dramatic about it and just flopping down right in the middle. Rogan had climbed onto the bed, crossing his legs as he sat next to the wall with his back up against it. Both Grove and Yuri had decided on sitting on the edge like you had but right next to each other.

Eventually, after Bay had scrambled around and now curled around herself in a corner of the bed, you allowed yourself to lay back, with only your legs hanging off the edge of the bed. You felt yourself relax under the comfortable bed below you, it was so much softer than the floor. You couldn't believe how long it had taken you to learn the joy that was a bed. You really wished that you had had a bed in the lab.

“Are you really sure?” Rogan blurted out of nowhere as the five of you laid on the bed. “Do you really want to stay with Zarkon?” 

Raising your head up so you were staring at an upside down Rogan, you frowned slightly. “I’m not going back to the lab,” You pointed out, and glanced at the other three in the room for a moment. “And I’m not letting you guys go back either.”

"Why stay with Zarkon though?" Rogan questioned, making you flip over onto your stomach and tilt your head a little. "The five of us could just run away. We're ships, right? We know how to fly now so we don't need the...adults to help us anymore. We could go anywhere!"

"But we have no clue on how to  _ survive  _ anywhere," Grove pointed out with a slight pout. "From what the adults reactions were, I have a feeling Alfor didn't exactly," she paused, "raise us the way most sentients are raised."

"I know," Rogan admitted with a sigh. "But do we really want to stay with sentients that we barely know?" 

"Gyrgan seems pretty okay," Yuri said as he moved closer on the bed. 

"They did help us pick names," Bay mumbled as she rolled onto her back.

"We have a movement to get to know them," You pointed out, "we can choose if we want to stay or not after that, if we want." Everyone seemed to be on different sides of the argument at the moment.

"Right." Rogan seemed to push himself further into the cushions around him.

The conversation went quiet after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really hope you enjoyed this chapter! sorry it ended so abruptly. 
> 
> next chapter: what is food?


	5. four-one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey looK! this chapter didn't take half a year to make! 
> 
> i still don't know what you rename this yet, but i know that i don't want to keep golden eyes. i'm hoping to change it before i get too far into it so if you have any suggestions leave them in the comments!
> 
> also, this is literally just a chapter where i talk about languages (which i am not an expert on, i only know English, so if there's anything that i need to change about how people are with secondary languages, please let me know) because DAMN IT! there is no way that _everyone_ in the galaxy speaks English (or whatever language you watch Voltron in) so here, have languages. 
> 
> hope you enjoy!

It was disorienting, waking up in the soft bed instead of the floor in the lab. At first, the only thing you really knew was that Rogan was awake already (as evident by the hand running through your hair as your head laid on his stomach) and Bay's head was really bone-y as she laid on your legs. At first, everything seemed to be the same as it was at the lab. Grove was draped across you, with her head on Yuri's stomach, and you couldn't exactly move as your feet were being held hostage. You figured it was the same for Bay, since Yuri laid on her feet, which would also mean that it was the same for Yuri since Rogan laid on his feet (however, Rogan had stolen a straight piece of fabric off the bed and folded it up to put under his head, so Rogan probably had a more comfort position because of that). The only different thing that you noticed was how you woke up. Instead of the doors hissing open and the echoing sound of footsteps, there was only a knock. Bay groaned at the sound, rolling over and hugging your feet closer to her, but you were interested in what the knock meant. Although, with, really, your whole body being held hostage by Bay and Grove, that wasn't really possible.

Rogan almost seemed to sense your intrigue, as his hand left your hair and you heard shuffling noises before he appeared at the end of the bed. Leaning up as far as you could with over half of your body stuck under two other bodies, you saw the very tips of Rogan's red hair that never wanted to stay down and always made him look taller than he actually was, that didn't change the fact that he was still significantly shorter than Zarkon. As evident by how much height difference there was between them as Zarkon stood on the other side of the door.

Zarkon, with a fist over his mouth, cleared his throat. "Good mourning," he paused for a moment before letting out an irritated sigh, "morning. Good morning," he corrected. "I'm here to escort you to breakfast. If you would like to stay in your room for it, that is also fine."

Tilting your head slightly, you stared at Zarkon. “Breakfast?” 

“What’s that?” Grove piped up from behind you, finishing your thought. 

Zarkon looked at the two of you as if you had just said that Rogan’s primary colour was green. “It’s a time where you eat food. It comes before the middle of the day and dinner.” Neither of those helped you understand what he was talking about. 

It was Yuri who asked the question you were all thinking, “What’s food?”

Anger flashed through Zarkon for a moment, and, for a brief second you were scared that it was towards you and the lions. He must have seen you freeze up, as he relaxed before speaking again. “Perhaps it would be best for the five of you to come witness what food is then? I’m sure it will be a welcome surprise.” 

Glancing behind you towards the others, everyone almost seemed interested in what Zarkon wanted to show you. So, giving Zarkon a nod, you stepped through the doorway. “Let’s go figure out what this food is then.” 

Zarkon led the five of you through several hallways, each glowing with their own lights attached to the walls. It was interesting, seeing how the hallways of wherever you were now were so different to the lab you had been confined to for decaphoebs. The difference was definitely an improvement, however. You couldn’t say that you missed the stark white walls, or all the machines with the blinking colourful lights that gave you a headache if you stared at them for too long. 

Eventually, Zarkon stopped in front of a room, that, with the whooshing sound of a familiar door opening, revealed a long desk with several chairs surrounding it. Instead of the papers and electronics that you often saw littering the desks in the lab, plates of mysterious things (you supposed that that was the food Zarkon was talking about) sat on it while Alfor, Trigel, Blaytz, and Gyrgan sat in the chairs around it, all of them facing the door the six of you had just walked through. Another person, one you hadn’t met before, sat at one end of the table. 

She reminded you of Alfor, with the white hair and the red marks under her eyes. With the pointed ears that were nearly hidden by her hair, you could tell that she was Altean too. She seemed to be looking over you and the other lions as well, as her eyes trailed over towards the five of you after she had sent a smile towards Zarkon. 

“I suppose that these must be the lions I was told about then,” She smiled towards the five of you. She seemed friendly, much like how Yuri had been when he had first woken up. Pushing herself away from the long desk, she strode towards you, stopping short just enough that he had barely reached you when stretched out. “My name is Honerva, it’s nice to meet you.” 

You glanced down at her hand as your name tumbled from your mouth. Reaching out, you felt her grip tighten (your thoughts went to the times when Alfor would grab your hand to overturn it for a test, one that involved something pokey that you really didn’t like, a needle, he had called it) and she shook the two hands. When she relaxed her grip, you gently and slowly pulled your own hand away. “I’m the -uh- Black Lion.” 

Behind and beside you, the other lions chipped in their names and colours. Honerva shook each of their hands as well. 

“Well, as I said before, it’s nice to meet all of you. Please, come take a seat, we saved you some at the table.” She gestured to the one side of the long desk—you supposed that it was actually called a table—where five chairs sat empty, as well as one at the front of the table across from where Honerva had been sitting and in beside it.

Zarkon was the one who took the empty chair at the front of the table, while Honerva went back to her seat across from him. None of you moved towards the table for a moment, before you took a step towards the empty chair beside Zarkon and across from an empty seat. An empty disc sat in front of it, as well as some weird looking tools that you hadn’t seen before. Pulling the chair back a bit, you sat down and looked towards what the other adults were doing for what you should be doing. Beside you, the other lions were doing the same, having all sat down as well. Rogan sat beside you and across from Alfor; Grove sat beside Rogan and across from Trigel; Bay sat beside Grove and across from Blaytz; and Yuri sat beside Bay and across Gyrgan. 

It would seem that none of the adults seemed to be moving either.

Zarkon let out a noise, one that sounded like surprise almost. “Alfor,” the man in question hummed, “the lions informed me that you never told them what food was.” Zarkon spoke calmly, but you could almost hear fire in his words. You had only heard fire once, when a blinking machine had malfunctioned and broken down, and it hadn’t been good for anyone who had been involved—which at the time had been you, Alfor, Yuri and Bay. You had a feeling that this would be like that, except maybe with less destruction. 

It was actually Honerva who spoke up first. “What?” She turned to Alfor with a glare. “Did you even  _ feed  _ these children, Alfor?” 

Perhaps it had only turned out bad for Alfor, who was, much like when the adults had found out that you had been kept in a lab for decaphoebs, being scolded. You all shared a look, one that seemed to ask what exactly was going on, with all the lions. What were you supposed to do during this? 

With a huff, Honerva sunk back into her seat after it seemed like she was done scolding Alfor. “You five,” she turned to the line of lions, “should have  _ never  _ been treated that way. I suppose it now makes sense why Alfor had no idea what the five of you liked for breakfast then.”

At the other end of the table, Zarkon nodded. “It’s a good thing we asked the chefs to make a breakfast food from each...adult’s planet then.” 

“I’m surprised you had ingredients for them,” Trigel said as she played with one of the strange tools on the table with her finger, twirling it around. “Altean breakfasts I understand, since you have Honerva here, but ingredients from Nalquod, Rygnirath, and the Dalterian Belt?” 

“I’m surprised the chefs even know how to make them,” Blaytz pointed out.

Zarkon shook his head with a smile. “I have always wanted to make those who visit feel as,” Zarkon made a noise that almost sounded like a word? But it didn’t sound Altean, at least, not one that you knew, “loved?” He turned to Honerva with a confused glance.

She softly shook her head. “I think the word you’re looking for is welcome, sweetheart.” 

“Ah, yes! Thank you, Honerva! I have always wanted to make those who visit feel as welcome as can be.” 

You tilted your head slightly, “Why do you do that?” Both Honerva and Zarkon turned to you, both looking just as confused as you probably were. “You said strange words before now too.” 

“Ah!” Zarkon exclaimed, seemingly understanding what you were getting at. “I suppose only having Alfor as a visitor in your prison, you only learned Altean?” 

“It wasn’t a prison,” Alfor blurted out with a frown.

Trigel elbowed him. “You didn’t allow them to leave, it was a prison, Alfor.” 

Ignoring Trigel and Alfor, you concentrated on answering Zarkon. “Only Altean?” 

“Yes,” Honerva nodded on the other end of the table, making you swirl around to face her, “there are many more languages than just Altean. With how big the galaxy is, there are probably millions of billions of languages out there.” 

“The one you hear me speaking is Galran,” Zarkon explained. How you wished that he and Honerva weren’t on opposite ends of the table so you wouldn’t have to turn your head so much to speak with them at a time. “It’s one of the main languages of Daibazaal, with variations stemming off of it for different parts of the planet.”

“Most of the time they all sound very similar and have similar words so it’s easy to translate all of them while only knowing one of the languages,” Trigel pointed out, stopping her little argument with Alfor. “What words were the ones that sounded nearly identical in Galran and Latrian again, Zarkon?” 

“Oh!” Zarkon made three similar sounding, well, sounds, that you supposed were the two words Trigel were talking about. “I believe they mean home in Altean? And Latrian has one for more formal homes as well that sounds similar. The royal hall would fall under the Latrian formal version of the word.” 

Honerva tested out the word herself, sounding it out a couple of times before frowning. “Do you mind using it in a sentence?” A string of words that sounded like the ones Zarkon had been saying came from his mouth. “Thank you.” She copied the sentence herself a few times as well. “I think house and home would be the closest word to the informal one that Latrian has and the Galran one, but mansion and royal hall would be a pretty accurate translation of the formal Latrian one.” 

“Nalquod has its own language too!” Blaytz blurted out eagerly, nearly jumping from his seat. 

“But, you’re all speaking Altean?” You pointed out, still confused as ever. 

“Altean comes from Altea, and with Altea being the widest known because of our efforts to trade with everyone, others decided to learn Altean so that there wouldn’t be a language barrier between us,” Alfor chipped in after he finished glaring at Trigel (was he really so mad that they had compared the lab to a prison? You didn’t even know what a prison was but was it really that bad to compare the lab to?). “Seeing as we visit many planets, it was much easier to teach them Altean then for us to learn over millions of billions of languages as Honerva put it.” 

“However,” Honerva smiled, mostly at Alfor, but it didn’t look like the happy ones you saw Bay and Yuri often have, “some Alteans, like myself, like to challenge themselves by learning the languages of the planets they visit. Especially when they’re there long term like myself on Daibazaal.” 

Alfor gave a nod. “Of course.” 

You thought to yourself for a moment, staring down at the empty disc while you did so before looking back up at Zarkon when you had decided. “Do you think you could help me learn Galran?” Although, from the sounds of it, you didn’t know every word in Altean yet either (especially the word table). 

“You wish to learn Galran?”

You gave a nod. “If-if I am going to be staying with you, wouldn’t it be easier if I knew the language of the planet?” 

Zarkon gave a laugh, but at seeing your frown he slowed down. “Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, but that is exactly how Honerva asked me to teach her when she declared she was staying here to study the rift.” Your eyes flew to Honerva who was smiling herself. “I must tell you that Galran is not an easy language to learn.”

“Easier than Altean probably!” Gyrgan joked with a smile. 

“I learned Altean in less than a decaphoeb,” You pointed out, decided to not tell anyone that you doubted you knew  _ everything  _ in Altean. “And I helped teach the other lions learn it too, well, Rogan already knew Altean when he became small.” 

“Became small?” Trigel mumbled to herself. 

“Please,” You continued, “I want to learn Galran.”

Zarkon laughed again. “Of course, I’ll begin teaching you as soon as we can start.” 

A smile slowly tugged at your lips. “Great!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i figured languages deserved their own chapter so i made them have their own chapter, also, i needed an excuse for you to meet Honerva.
> 
> i should mention that Latrian is a language that i COMPLETELY made up for the sake of Daibazaal having more than just Galran. i figured that, since Earth has a whole lot more than one, why not make a planet that i personally headcannon as bigger than Earth have more than one too. 
> 
> As said in the beginning notes, i am not an expert on languages, I just think that they're really cool, so if i do anything wrong about someone who knows secondary languages (and is still slightly learning one/isn't completely fluent in it) please let me know so i can fix it!
> 
> ALSO!!!! I figured I should put down what I've come up with for the time measurements seeing as next chapter will be talking about things that have to deal with those and putting them at the end of that chapter would make sense but i wanna do it here so! (I've only done movements, phoebs, and decaphoebs; vargas, ticks, quintants and doboshes are the same/similar enough to Earthian times that i didn't touch them)
> 
> MOVEMENTS: 7 quintants (7 days basically, like Earth)  
> PHOEBS: 4 movements/35 quintants each  
> DECAPHOEB: 10 phoebs / 40 movements / 350 quintants each 
> 
> so, alien years are just 15/16 days less than Earth to make things easier to calculate. also decaphoebs are ten phoebs instead of twelve because deca means ten. 
> 
> ho boy, this is a long note so this is gonna be it. thank to you everyone who comments and leaves kudos!
> 
> hope you enjoyed!


	6. five-one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> golden eyes = cosmic courage
> 
> summary also changed!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know that someone said that their email notifications weren't working, so, in case you haven't read it yet, there's another chapter before this one that was posted a week ago!
> 
> i finally decided on a name i like better than golden eyes! so, welcome everyone to cosmic courage! i also changed the summary because i didn't like that either.
> 
> this chapter kind of got a head of me and wrote a lot more than i thought it would be, so enjoy a longer than (now) normal chapter that is also not six months apart from the last one! i'm excited because next chapter we get to visit other planets (i'm especially excited for Rygnirath, Nalquod, and the Dalterian Belt since there's little to no cannon info on them so i get to brainstorm so many things for them). 
> 
> i hope you enjoy!

The rest of the movement you spent on Daibazaal followed a routine. You would wake up, all tangled up in a pile with the other lions, to Zarkon or another adult (you noticed that it was never Alfor, however) knocking on the door to come get you so they could lead you to the dining hall to eat breakfast—which you found was where you ate food as a type of fuel so you could get throughout the day. After breakfast, Zarkon or Honerva would lead the five of you, plus the adults, to a place on Daibazaal that needed repairs, such as removing rubble or fixing up houses. The ten (or eleven of you if Honerva had also come, which usually happened when she wasn't busy researching where the beast had come from) usually had lunch—another eating session—where the repairs were taking place, handing out food that you had brought along for the people who needed it as well, so that you could get right back into it afterwards. After several vargas passed, Zarkon would call it a day and you would all go eat dinner, where after the ten of you would split up. You usually went with Zarkon, who taught you Galran with the help of Honerva, while the other lions went with their respectful pilots—minus Rogan, who would alternate between wherever the four of you went. 

Today was going to be different, however. You had finished repairs early the quintant before; Zarkon had been right in his prediction that it would only take a movement to finish them. So, now, you were going to have to decide what was going to happen. 

You had accepted Zarkon’s offer to stay with him after he had given it, which probably hadn’t been the best idea—accepting an offer to stay with someone you barely knew—but you found the more you stayed on Daibazaal and learned Galran, the more you actually wanted to stay with Zarkon on Daibazaal. You found you liked the planet, and its sentients. Everyone seemed to want to help each other, as your group wasn’t the only ones helping out with repairs, Galra from every inch of Daibazaal had come to help (and you had seen a few Alteans among them as well). The sentients here seemed friendly and helpful, from the ones you had seen. 

Staying here was becoming more and more the one thing you truly wanted, but what about the others?

The thought circled around your head as you stared at the ceiling of the room Zarkon had given you, as the soft snores from Bay and the rumble of Rogan’s chest echoed through your ears. It was keeping you up. The other pilots had offered the lions their own planets as a place to live (minus Alfor to Rogan), but did the lions truly want to stay with them like you did with Zarkon? If they didn’t, would they want to stay with you on Daibazaal? If they did want to stay with their respectful pilots, would you ever see them again? What was Rogan going to do? 

Slipping out from under the bodies you were trapped under, you slipped out of the room as quietly as you could. However, you hardly thought that the sound of the whooshing door had done you any favors; especially since that had been the same noise that had woken the five of you up only a movement ago when you had met the pilots. Although, there were a lot more things that went bump in the night on Daibazaal then there had been in the lab. 

The hallway was dark save for the purple lights that dimly lit it up every few steps. Shadows danced under your fingertips as you ran them over the walls. You didn’t know where you were heading, just letting the groves in the walls lead you. You supposed that you were getting yourself purposefully lost. Despite being on Daibazaal for a movement, you hadn’t really explored all that much. Maybe wherever you ended up you would fall asleep at. Maybe wherever you ended up would be able to tell you the answers to the questions you had.

(Probably not, but there was always that hope that you’d be able to stop worrying about them eventually.)

Your fingers slipped from the wall abruptly, sliding into the air as cool air rushed towards your face. During the movement, you had found that Daibazaal didn’t really have glass over their windows (as you later learned Altea and most other planets did), since Daibazaal didn’t really experience any murderous forces of nature like other planets; the most they got was harmless rain consisting of water and sometimes slightly frozen water, nothing bad but annoying enough for them to put roofs over their heads during it. So, it came to no surprise when you came across one of the large windows that spanned the whole wall of the royal hall, a banister splitting it slightly below the middle so no one fell out of it by accident. You let your hand float in between inside the hall and outside, letting the chilly air brush up against your fingertips and towards your face, staining your cheeks and tips of your ears red. The purple hairs that you had been finding all over your arms stood on end, making them look longer then they did when they laid down flat on your arm. 

You liked the cold. Just like you did the heat when you were outside in the blazing sun that was Daibazaal’s system’s star (although, it only got really hot during the middle of the quintant, when lunch was usually taking place). The lab had always been in the strange area of not cold but not hot at the same time. Being in either of the more extreme temperatures made you remember that you were no longer there. That you weren’t ever going to be there again. 

You let your hand fall to your side as you slid down to sit just below the banister, pulling your knees up to your chest and hugging them close to keep whatever heat you had inside you inside. You let the wind that blew through the window smack against your face, allowing your hair to move around as if someone invisible was playing with it. Tears stung at your eyes, something you found sentients do if they were happy or sad, but you weren’t either at the moment. You were just confused and worried. Your eyes also stung from the cold, however, so it may possibly be that. 

You don’t know how long you stayed there, staring off into the abyss of space above you as the wind chilled you. 

You do, however, know that eventually you felt a weight fall onto your shoulders.

Glancing away from the window to the blanket that now rested on your shoulders, Rogan, who had somehow managed to get out of the pile of bodies himself, sat down beside you, letting his legs dangle off the edge of the window. 

“You’ll catch a cold if you stay here for too long.” You didn’t question how he knew that, but you had a feeling catching a cold wasn’t a good thing. Maybe he had learned it from one of the pilots? “What are you doing all the way over here,” your name fell from his lips as he stared out towards the sky. 

“Couldn’t sleep,” You admitted with a mumble, hugging the corners of the blanket closer to your chest. “Too many thoughts.”

Rogan hummed. “About what’s going to happen tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” You lifted your head up slightly. “The five of us will make our own choices, all you have to do is pick your own.” 

“I know that,” you let out a sigh, “but I just-”

“Nope,” Rogan interrupted. “Don’t worry about it. Okay? We’ll be fine. No matter what choice we’ll make.” You opened your mouth once more. “You don’t have to look after us anymore. You just worry about yourself. About what  _ you’re  _ going to do. We’re not locked in the lab anymore. We’ve got more sentients to rely on then just ourselves. We’ll be fine,” he said your name softly, like a breath just so happened to leave his lips. 

You don’t know if it helped at all, but you did feel slightly better. “Right.” You let out a laugh. “And I’m supposed to be the oldest out of all of us.”

Rogan chuckled. “Age does not equal maturity. Just look at Blaytz, he’s older than Trigel by a few decaphoebs yet she’s the one that stops him from doing stupid things like licking a piece of rock that came from who knows where. I’m scared of what Bay is going to end up like if he’s the one taking care of her.” 

“Bay’s going to be the one to stop him from doing the stupid stuff when Trigel isn’t there.” 

“You’re right,” Rogan shook his head with a laugh. “Bay isn’t the one to do stupid things unless it involves a competition.”

The rest of the conversation went like that, the two of you talking about the pilots and the rest of the lions, sharing laughs as the night went on. 

You blinked away sleep, Rogan nudging you awake with his shoulder. Your cheek felt sore, after lying on Rogan’s shoulder for who knows how long; it was certainly long enough for the sun to come up, that’s for sure. Wiping away drool from the side of your mouth, you hummed, not really coherent enough to say any words. 

“We should get going to the dining room,” Rogan said, yawning afterwards. “The others might already be there, and we don’t want to worry them.”

You nodded as Rogan helped you to your feet. “Yeah. Okay. That’s a good idea.” 

Walking side by side, the two of you made your way to the dining room, with yawns interrupting the silence every once in a while. Your footsteps echoed throughout the hallway, your pants bugging you as they drifted just above your ankles. Somehow, during the movement, you had grown despite not growing for the past three decaphoebs. It was just another thing that you had noticed change about you during the movement. The other being the pale purple hairs that appeared on your hands and legs. Perhaps being out of the lab had made it so that you were actually able to grow like a normal sentient would?

“There you two are!” Bay exclaimed as the dining room doors whooshed open, leaping from her chair to the door. “We were about to go searching for you!”

Grove’s chair screeched against the floor slightly as she pushed herself away from the table. “I told you they would show up soon, Bay. We just needed to wait a little.” She glanced between you and Rogan. “Where were you two anyway?” 

“Next to a window in some hallway,” Rogan explained, holding the blanket he had used to cover you out to Zarkon as he walked up. “Thanks for this, by the way.”

Accepting the blanket, Zarkon nodded. “I take it the two of you didn’t go back to the room?”

Rogan shook his head. “No,” he admitted, “we kind of fell asleep while we were talking.”

“It’s good that you still got some sleep, but I do know that sleeping sitting up is not a great position.”

“What are the two of you talking about?” You questioned, tilting your head slightly, looking between Zarkon and Rogan. They were talking as if they both knew that you had been at the window, but Rogan had been the only one to actually come and see you.

“Ah. I found you whilst you were looking out the window,” Zarkon admitted. “I thought that I would not have been the best one to talk to about what was troubling you, so I went to fetch another one of the lions. I ran into Rogan on the way to the room so I sent him to you with a blanket since it gets cold during the night.” 

Rogan let out a laugh. “You’d gotten yourself pretty far from the room, I probably wouldn’t have been able to find you.” 

“Oh! Um,  _ thank you _ ,” You said in Galran. You really hoped that you hadn’t said any of the words wrong.

With the way Zarkon smiled, you concluded that you hadn’t. “ _ You’re welcome. _ ” Clearing his throat, Zarkon gestured to the table. “Please, come take a seat. The other pilots should be here soon, as well as Honerva. I find that they sleep in on days that they do not have to do anything. And since they won’t be leaving until after lunch, they will probably be late for breakfast.” 

Taking your usual seat beside Zarkon and Rogan, you noticed that Yuri wasn’t there. Voicing your observation, you looked towards the ones who had been there before you for answers.

“I think he and Gyrgan went out together somewhere,” Bay admitted. “I remember seeing Gyrgan come to the room before Zarkon did, but I was half asleep at the time so I may be wrong.” 

“Gyrgan wanted to show Yuri the best place to watch the sunrise on Daibazaal as far as I’m aware, they should be back soon,” Zarkon explained. “The sun never sets on Rygnirath, so Gyrgan likes to watch the sunrises and sunsets whenever he can.” 

“The sun never sets?” Grove questioned, sitting up as straight as she could in her seat. During the whole movement, she would ask questions, be it for different planets, or anything else that she had wanted to know at the moment. You don’t remember her ever asking this many questions while you were in the lab, if anything, she was the quietest out of the five of you, with Rogan coming in second. 

Zarkon nodded. “All of Rygnirath’s cities are on the top of the planet, in a circle they like to call,” Zarkon paused for a moment, “the Morning Circle, I believe? Not much of Rygnirath is populated other than the circle, there’s spots but not enough sentients reside there to call it a city. Because of the way Rygnirath is tilted, the sunlight never leaves the circle, so it’s always sunny there. Although, I do believe that there’s a myth that once every ten thousand decaphoebs, night comes and stays for another ten thousand decaphoebs.”

“Oh?” Gyrgan made a noise of surprise, as he entered the dining room with Yuri following not far behind. “Are the five of you talking about the End of Days?” When Zarkon nodded once more, Gyrgan took his seat. He began to explain the End of Days in greater detail, keeping everyone at the table engaged. 

“Good morning!” Blaytz announced as he walked through the dining room doors, taking up the entire space by spreading his arms out, making Trigel, Honerva, and Alfor have to walk behind him instead of beside.

Bay bolted out of her chair, racing up to Blaytz, waving her arms about as she talked about what Gyrgan had told the five of you. Grove almost copied the movements exactly, although, rushing up to Trigel instead of Blaytz. You smiled at the sight, you had never seen the two of them so excited. 

After the other pilots took their seats, food was soon served and idle chatter between the eleven of you. It was about halfway through when Alfor broke through the many conversations with a clear of his throat.

“I believe,” he started, catching everyone’s attention, “that we should talk about what’s going to happen to the lions, now that the movement is up.”

“I’m going to go to Rygnirath with Gyrgan,” Yuri blurted out almost instantly after Alfor was done speaking. “He asked me if I wanted to stay with him while we were watching the sunrise, and I said yes.”

“I’m sneaking aboard Blaytz ship and going to Nalquod with him,” Bay explained, smirking towards Blaytz as she stabbed a piece of fruit (one that you were pretty sure was from Nalquod actually) on her plate. 

Blaytz laughed as he shook his head. “You can’t exactly sneak aboard if I know you’re coming and you’re gonna be sitting with me in the cockpit, kiddo.” 

Grove cleared her throat. “Um, I would like to stay with you, Trigel, if that would be alright?”

“Of course you can stay with me, Grove,” Trigel smiled, reaching across the table to hold onto one of Grove’s hands.

Everyone seemed to turn to Rogan now, as he was the only one left to choose where he was going to be staying. Since everyone already knew that you were going to be staying with Zarkon since your first day on Daibazaal, there was no need to say where you were staying. You had picked your decision then, and you hadn’t changed it since. 

“I’ll be staying with Alfor,” Rogan announced eventually, but you could tell that he didn’t exactly sound happy about it.

“What?” Nearly everyone said, each in their own way and, in the case of Blaytz and Trigel you had learned, their own language. Even Alfor had seemed surprised.

Confused, since you were pretty sure none of you wanted to go back to the lab, you turned to Rogan. “Why?”

“We all know that I’m slightly different from the other lions,” Rogan explained slowly, glaring at his plate. “I was the only one who came out looking Altean. Alfor even admitted that he was trying something experimental while he was making me. We don’t know what that is yet, not even Alfor himself. I want to know what that is. What makes me so different from you four. Alfor knows what to look for and test for.” Rogan tore his eyes away from his plate and instead glared at Alfor. “I’ll be leaving once we figure out what makes me so different. And I won’t be staying more than a few vargas in the lab per quintant.”

You frowned, both at what Rogan said and what you had just realized. “We’re all being split up.”

“There’s no need to sound so sad about it!” Blaytz pointed out. “We all meet up, at least, what, once every other phoeb? And you can always call each other too! You won’t never be able to see each other again!” 

“And there’s the missions that we go on as well,” Alfor explained softly, “perhaps you five can help us with those as well.” 

“Missions?” You heard Grove whisper to herself. 

“We can come up with a plan, one that makes it so that you guys can see each other,” Gyrgan suggested. 

Trigel nodded. “Why don’t we meet up every other phoeb on each other’s planets? For a movement like we did when we first met them. That way they can actually do something together instead of just seeing each other for a quintant.” 

"That sounds like a great idea!” Bay exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. 

You couldn’t help but agree, nodding your head. Sure, you wouldn’t see them everyday like you have been for the past three decaphoebs, but once every other phoeb would be better than never again. “It does.”

Everyone else seemed to agree as well. So, soon, a plan was formed. Every other phoeb, the pilots and the lions would meet up on an alternating planet, so that way the lions would be able to see where the other lions were living. Of course, if the pilots were to get missions (which were later explained as what the pilots called jobs that were given to them by other planets, or that they took up by themselves, to help better the universe), the lions would come with; it wasn’t said if you would be joining them in your shrunken form or your ship form, perhaps both. So, you weren’t never going to see the other lions ever again. In fact, in, roughly, a phoeb and a half, the ten (or eleven, if Honerva also came with) would be heading over to Altea, both for a checkup on how the lions were doing outside of Altea, and to meet up for a movement. 

The hours leading up to the pilots, and their respectful lions, leaving Daibazaal were filled with thoughts you didn’t particularly like. You had realized that the three decaphoebs that you had spent in the lab had gone by painstakingly slowly, and your first thoughts had gone to the phoeb and a half that you had until you saw the lions once again in person would go by just as slowly.

Which was why, as the pilots and the lions got ready to go, you frowned as you watched. They hadn’t needed your help, having everything ready to go from when you had landed on Daibazaal. Everyone, instead, was saying bye to everyone. Not for forever, just for now, but you couldn’t shake the feeling that you would never see the lions ever again. 

“Hey,” Rogan called out softly, walking away from the group to meet up with you off to the side. 

“I think that’s the opposite of what you’re supposed to be saying at a time like this,” You joked, hoping that it would make you feel a little better. It didn’t.

Rogan shrugged his shoulders a little. “Oh well.” Frowning, his eyes grew concerned. “I’ll call everyday, you know.”

“You better. I want to know what’s happening. Especially if Alfor’s locking you up in the lab again.”

“I’ll contact you immediately if that ever happens.” You nodded as Rogan held out his hand. “Everyone seems to be shaking at hands, at a point like this, so,” he trailed off.

You glanced down at his hand for a moment. It didn’t seem to fit, not really. So, instead, you did what you saw Zarkon and Honerva do once. Wrapping your arms around him, you slightly trapped his own arms, but you hoped that he got what you were doing, he had been with you when Honerva and Zarkon had done it after all. He seemed to have realized it, for he wrapped his arms around you.

“I’ll call you as soon as we land.” You only nodded against him, closing your eyes and hoping that he would never leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man, legends and stuff for alien planets is fun to come up with! i'm really, really excited to show you what i have planned for everything! hopefully after this chapter, the plot starts moving a lot faster. not that i don't mind being in the first paladin's time, but i have a feeling that you guys really want Shiro, Keith, and everyone else to show up already. i mean, Allura's not even born yet. and we still have the second season of this (which will be the 10k year gap) to get through. i had been hoping that this season, and the next, wouldn't take too many chapters but since i've decided to write shorter ones that may be a little hard. especially if they get out of hand like this one.
> 
> i hope you enjoyed and thank you for all the kudos and comments!


	7. six-one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a little history lesson from Zarkon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this all on paper first, and it was four pages long, and i thought 'oh, that's a little long for something that's mostly just sitting and talking and worldbuilding, i'll stop it there' and then it turns out it's barely 1k words long. i mean, that's kind of good since it's just talking and worldbuilding and that i didn't take over 2k words just talking about this but i'm kind of sad about it at the same time? i dunno
> 
> i'd expect shorter chapters from here on out, since, as stated in a note that i have since deleted, my computer broke down about a week ago. i've got a computer for about a month or so? but once that month is up i'm going to have to share it again (it's the family computer in the living room that also acts as the tv, no one is in the living room for roughly a month due to real life problems, except for me). since i have to save up for my own computer, it's going to take a while for me to get a new one. so, expect shorter and sparse chapters. sorry :/
> 
> hope you enjoy!

Yelping, you felt your back hit the matted floor with a thump. With a groan, you glanced up at Zarkon, a confused and concerned frown on his face as he held onto the staff that he had just used to knock you off your feet; your own staff knocked not far from where you had landed. 

“You are not focused,” Zarkon pointed out (in Galran, since you had finally learned enough to be able to carry conversations) as he outstretched his hand to help you up. 

“Sorry,” You blurted out as you fetched your staff from the ground. Zarkon was teaching you how to fight, so that way you would be able to help even if you were in your shrunken form. That way, you wouldn’t just be there watching the fight happen in front of you, that way you could actually help (not that you had seen any fights since you had gotten here). “My mind is...elsewhere.”

Zarkon hummed, seemingly understanding what you meant. “We are to visit Altea next movement. It will be the first time in a long time that you will see the other lions in person.” A phoeb and a half (nearly) had gone by almost slower than the three decaphoebs you had spent in the lab. 

“I’ve talked to them over the communications system,” you pointed out as you took up a defensive stance with your staff in hand.

Zarkon shook his head, lowering his staff with his hands. “Talking over comms and talking in person feel different, I’ve found.” Zarkon hung up his staff and reached for yours. “Let’s take a break, we’ve been at this for a while now.”

You allowed him to take your staff, even if you didn’t really feel like taking a break at the moment. Crossing your legs, and letting the fur on them rub up against itself, you sat down on the matted floor. You had no idea what Zarkon had in plan now but soon he joined you on the floor.

“How about...a history lesson?” Zarkon suggested, letting his hands rest in his lap as you moved ever closer. “Perhaps that will get your mind off the visit.” Not that you were nervous about the visit, not at all. Not like you were thinking that now that you and the other lions had been split up that they wouldn’t want to talk to you now. That they were only talking to you because of some forced feeling they had since they had all lived with you in the lab. 

However, the thought of learning about the history of Daibazaal interested you. You had learned what Zarkon had done in his reign as emperor so far, and what he planned to do, but you had a feeling that this wouldn’t be more of that. You had barely learned anything about what had happened before Zarkon had been emperor, so perhaps it was that?

You nodded eagerly. “Yes, please.”

Zarkon laughed, probably at how eager you were to learn, before frowning once he was done. “I must admit, it is not a happy story. Then again, when is history ever happy?” He drew in a breath. “The Galra used to be a species filled with war, both with outside planets and themselves. Long before I became emperor, they used to be split in two, and that’s why we have two languages. It wasn’t until the emperor before me—Emperor Zyger—came into power that they were actually able to put their differences aside and fight together and not against each other. However, they only did that to fight in a pointless war that needed more people. Emperor Zyger had started a war with Altea. 

“Because Zyger didn’t listen to his people, however, many rose against him, wanting the pointless war to stop and to stop sending so many soldiers just to be killed. Back then, unless you were to start a family—and even then only one parent was allowed to stay—everyone was to be in the military, sending Daibazaal into a resource poor planet since no one was working anything else. Although, many refused to do trade with us anyway due to the many wars under our belt. 

“Zyger was soon assassinated, however, forty decaphoebs after he had started his reign, a reign that was far too long. On Daibazaal whoever is next in line to be emperor is not hereditary, and instead is picked in an event called a Kral Zera. Groups of Galra all go, and fight each other to be the first to light a torch on top of one of the tallest mountains on Daibazaal.”

“That’s how you became emperor then,” You blurted out, covering your mouth for a moment in embarrassment. Once uncovered, you had a question. “How long have you been emperor?”

“Only ten decaphoebs, young one,” Zarkon smiled at this, and you had a feeling it was because this was a happier topic than that of Emperor Zygar. “The first thing I did when I became emperor was call off the military attacking Altea, and send many sentients back to their homes, if they wished to be. Because of that, creating a truce with Altea was much easier than I expected. After two generations of rulers having been killed because of the war, with Alfor and his wife being the third generation and taking the throne much too young, I had been expecting something a lot harder than simply meeting them and proving myself,” Zarkon finished with a sigh. “Although, there are still those that do not trust us. As well as Galra that wish for us to go back to the days where we tried to conquer the galaxy.”

You frowned, staring at the furry, purple hands in your lap. “That’s-that’s not fair,” You said, aiming it at the fact that some sentients didn’t trust the Galra not to attack them. “They should at least give the Galra a chance, or something, like Alfor did for you.”

Another sigh came from Zarkon. “If only it was that easy. Even before Zyger took control, sentients feared the Galra. A million decaphoebs of fear and hatred are hard to get rid of in only ten decaphoebs.” 

“I’ll do it,” You announced with determination. “I’ll show them that the Galra can be trusted. Even if it takes another million decaphoebs.”

Zarkon only gave you a sad smile. “I’m sure you will, young one. I’m sure you will.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, a lot of worldbuilding of Daibazaal. i didn't mean for it to get this long? and i hope this wasn't too boring, but i want to show that you are learning stuff as time goes by and not just jumping into the action of that will be the worldbuilding of the other planets. i just couldn't figure out how to quiet do that for Daibazaal without just sprouting it out of nowhere (especially since the chapter that will mainly focus on Daibazaal isn't going to happen until after every other planet's going to get their own). 
> 
> i don't know if i mentioned it, but every other phoeb/month, the lions visit each other (with next chapter being the first visit) in the middle of the phoeb for a movement, so it'd be a phoeb and a half each time basically (if my math is right, i know at one point i said that there was 365/366 days in the year???? i dunno where i got that from, but there's 350 quintants/days in a decaphoeb/year with each phoeb/month having 5 movements/weeks with 7 quintants/days each). 
> 
> sorry if these notes are very long, i am tired, not excited for work in the morning since there was an accident involving my bed sheets and open windows and i have to wash them late at night, and also kinda stressed from real life problems.
> 
> hope you enjoyed!
> 
> \- cyborg

**Author's Note:**

> i swear, next chapter will be almost ten times as long. and it will actually be in the traditional second pov. so, i hope you guys enjoyed this. expect the next chapter soon.


End file.
